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6.30
but is occasionally employed, For although an orator would not say Tydides or Pelides, he will speak of certain definite persons as the impious parricides, while I should have no hesitation in speaking of Scipio as the destroyer of Carthage and Numantia, or of Cicero as the prince of Roman orators. Cicero himself, at any rate, availed himself of this licence, as, for example, in the following case: Your faults are not many, said the old praeceptor to the hero, Pro Muren. xxix. 60. The passage continues (a quotation from some old play) But you have faults and I can correct them. Phoenix is addressing his pupil Achilles. where neither name is given, though both are clearly understood.
6.31
On the other hand, onomatopoea, that is to say, the creation of a word, although regarded with the highest approbation by the Greeks, is scarcely permissible to a Roman. It is true that many words were created in this way by the original founders of the language, who adapted them to suit the sensation which they expressed. For instance, mugitus, lowing, sibilus, a hiss, and murmur owe their origin to this practice.
