artus¹

Membrum (redupl. of μέρος) denotes a limb of the body itself, like μέλος and κῶλον; whereas artus (ῥέθος, ἄρθρον,) properly only a joint of a limb, like ἄρθρον and ἅψος. Senec. Contr. ii. 13. Differebatur distortis articulis; nondum in sua membra artus redierant. Virg. Æn. v. 422. Magnos artus membrorum. Quintil. Decl. ult. Ut per singulos artus membra laxaret. Further, membra denotes the limbs collectively, including the head and trunk, as parts of the body; whereas artus only the extremities, which per commissuras with the body, properly so called, namely, the head and trunk, hang together. Gell. N. A. i. 14. (iv. 150.)

1. Angustus and arctus relate to space itself, and to the proximity of its enclosing limits; densus and spissus, to things existing in space, and to their proximity to one another. The angustum (ἐγγυστός) is bounded only by lines, and forms mostly an oblong, narrow, opp. to latus, Cic. Att. iv. 29, like στενός; the arctum (from arcere, εἴργω) is fenced in by lists, walls, or mounds, and forms mostly a square or circle, and so forth, close, in opp. to laxus, Cic. Orat. 25, like στενωπός. The clavus angustus can therefore never be arctus. Mel. iii. 2, 8. Rhenus ad dextram primo angustus, et sui similis, post ingens lacus Flevo dicitur . . . fitque iterum arctior, iterumque fluvius emittitur, in which passage the banks of the Rhine are considered only as lines, or as walls, 3. Densus (from ἀδινός? or θαμά?) denotes objects only as pressed near to one another, and without any observable gaps, in opp. to rarus, like δασύς and θαμειός: spissus, as pressed close into one another, and without any intervals between, in opp. to solutus, loose, like πυκνός and συχνός. In densus the principal notion is, the rich abundance of objects, which have no need to keep far apart, if they are to fill a wide space; in spissus, the want of empty space, from all the spaces between objects being filled up, owing to their being crowded together. (iv. 431.)