an ill planet."

[Greek: Philologos]


Forcellini, _s.v. Calamitas_, says:--

"Proprie significat imminutionem clademque calamorum segetis,
quæ grandine vel impetuoso aliquo turbine aut alia quapiam de
causa fit."

He then quotes Servius, _Ad Georg_, i. 151:--

"Robigo genus est vitii, quo culmi pereunt, quod a rusticanis
calamitas dicitur."

Then follows the note of Donatus on Ter. _Eun_. i. 1. 34.

It appears to me, if "_calamitas_" were derived from _calamus_, it
would mean something very different from what it does.

Another suggestion is, that the first syllable is the same as the
root of _cad-o_, to fall; _l_ and _d_, everybody knows, are
easily interchangeable: as Odysseus, Ulixes: [Greek: dakruon],
_lacrima_, _tear_, &c. &c. If so, _calamitas_ is a corrupted form
of _cadamitas_. Mar. Victorinus, _De Orthogr_. p. 2456., says:--

"Gueius Pompeius Magnus et scribebat et dicebat _Kadamitatem_
pro _Kalamitatem_."--(Quoted from Bothe's _Poetæ_," _Scenici
Latinorum_, vol. v. p. 21.)