Book 4
9
On the proper meaning of religiosus; and what changes the meaning of that word has undergone; and remarks of Nigidius Figulus on that subject, drawn from his Commentaries.
9
NIGIDIUS FIGULUS, in my opinion the most learned of men next to Marcus Varro, in the eleventh book of his Grammatical Commentaries, quotes Fr. 4, Swoboda. a truly remarkable line from an early poet: p. 297, Ribbeck3, who reads: réligentem esse <téd> oportet, réligiosus né fuas, following Fleckeisen. Best it is to be religious, lest one superstitious be; but he does not name the author of the poem. And in the same connection Nigidius adds: The suffix osus in words of this kind, such as vinosus, mulierosus, religiosus, always indicates an excessive amount of the quality in question. Therefore religiosus is applied to one who has involved himself in an extreme and superstitious devotion, which was regarded as a fault.
