Thursday, September 26, 2024

 

Sticking Out One's Tongue

Livy 7.10.5 (tr. B.O. Foster):
Armed and accoutred, they led him forth to the Gaul, who in his stupid glee—for the ancients have thought even this worth mentioning—thrust his tongue out in derision.

armatum adornatumque adversus Gallum stolide laetum et—quoniam id quoque memoria dignum antiquis visum est—linguam etiam ab inrisu exserentem producunt.
Q. Claudius Quadrigarius, fragment 6 (preserved by Aulus Gellius 9.13.12; tr. J. Briscoe):
Then the Gaul began to laugh and stick his tongue out.

deinde Gallus inridere coepit atque linguam exsertare.
The Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (s.v. exserto) doesn't cite Livy. Cf. Forcellini's Totius Latinitatis Lexicon, s.v. lingua:
Linguam exserere ludibrii causa in aliquem mos fuit antiquis Latinis, qui etiannum apud nostrates viget, quo quidem obsceni aliquid adversus alium, quicum contendis, significatur; nam lingua ita exserta similitudinem quandam penis exhibet, quæ tum viris, tum feminis, tum pueris stupri contumeliam minitari videtur. Liv. 7.10. Armatum adornatumque adversus Gallum stolide lætum, et linguam etiam ab irrisu exserentem, producunt. Idem vero Gallus in tabula pictus pro signo positus deinde fuerat sub tabernis argentariis in foro Romano, ut narrant Cic. 2. Orat. 66., Plin. 35.4.8. et Quintil. 6.3. ante med. Hanc subsannandi consuetudinem memorant etiam Pers. 1.60. et Hieronym. ep. 125. n. 18. (quem locum vide in CICONIA §. 2.) et Vulgat. interpr. in Isaj. 57.4.3.
See Carl Sittl, Die Gebärden der Griechen und Römer (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1890), pp. 90-91.



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