Thanks Martin,
I can't find 'fixare' in my (very small!) latin dictionary, but it
has 'fixi' as the perf. tense of 'figo', which includes 'to drive in,
pierce' as part of it's meaning, not unlike the meaning of 'defigo',
the root of 'defixiones' , and pertaining to the nailing or attaching
of the curse - there is a group of early modern english 'defixiones',
which are very like the ancient ones in content - perhaps the word
came back into use at that time along with the practice?
Faith Morgan
On 30 Nov 2005, at 22:26, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>> hello
>>
>> does anyone know whether the phrase 'to fix a race' might come
>> from 'defixiones' which were often
>> used to try to 'fix' a race...?
>
> Sorry, but 'fix' only come into English in the 16th century,
> according to the OED. It's from Latin 'fixare', but a bit mundane,
> I'm afraid.
>
> Martin Nichols
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