Epiceno e promiscuo: indagine sul significato

According to Latin grammarians, a noun as hic/haec sacerdos, is commune, of common gender, whereas a noun as haec Aquila, that is referred to individuals of both sexes although it only has a grammatical gender, is called epicoenum but also, by some authors, promiscuum or subcommune. Whereas promiscuum seems of Latrin origin, epicoenum is borrowed from Greek epíkoinos and subcommune is the translation of the same word. Since epí- means ‘over’ and epíkoinos is translated into the Armenian version of Dionysius Thrax makawasar ‘over-common’, the Author investigates into the meaning of epí- and into the relationship, manifest in Greek but darkened in Latin, between koinós and epíkoinos. From the Greek evidences before the fixation of grammatical terms, it turns out that epíkoinos expresses on the one hand the promiscuity with particular regard to the sex (so we could explain promiscuum) and on the other hand, in the derivative words, the unequal possession of something (so we could explain subcommune). Consequently, the analysis of the names shows a different idea of the relationship between nouns and references.