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[5arg] Whether avarus is a simple word or, as it appears to Publius Nigidius, a compound, made up of two parts.PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS, in the twenty-ninth book of his Commentaries, 1 declares that avarus is not a simple word, but is compounded of two parts: “For that man,” he says, “is called avarus, or 'covetous,' who is avidus aeris, or 'eager for money;' but in the compound the letter e is lost.” He also says 2 that a man is called by the compound term locuples, or “rich,” when he holds pleraque loca, that is to say, “many possessions.” 3
But his statement about locuples is the stronger and more probable. As to avarus there is doubt; for why may it not seem to be derived from one single word, namely aveo, 4 and formed in the same way as amarus, about which there is general agreement that it is not a compound?
