Folio 92r - the age of man, continued.
as also in the psalm where it says: 'Thou art the helper of the fatherless' (Psalms, 10: 14). The Greek text has orphano.
The pubescent are so called from pubis, that is, they get their name from the private parts of the body because these first show the down of puberty. Some think of puberty as a specific age, that is, they call 'pubescent' someone who has reached the end of his fourteenth year, even though the signs of puberty may appear much later. It is certain, however, that a child has reached puberty when it shows the physical signs and can generate children.
The word puerpure refers to women who give birth during the years of puberty. In this context Horace says: 'The young mother is praised for her firstborn male' (Odes, 4, 5, 23). The word is also used of those who are pregnant with their first child, or those who bear sons for the first time.
The adolescent, adolescens, is so called because he is old enough to beget children, or because he grows in maturity and size.
A young man, iuvenis, is so called because he begins to be able to help, as among oxen bullocks, iuvencus, are so named when they have withdrawn from the calves. For a young man is at that particular growth period and is ready to be of help. For it is incumbent on a man to devote himself to helping others. Just as the thirtieth year is that of perfect age in men, so the third is that of greatest strength among cattle and beasts of burden.
Man, vir, is so called because there is greater virtue, virtus, in him than in women. It is for that reason that he takes the name, or because he acts with force in his relationship with woman.
Woman, mulier, however, gets her name from her softness, mollicia, as if mollior, softer, with the letter l removed or changed, giving mulier.
There are differences between men and women in physical strength and weakness. But because the man's strength is greater, the woman's is less and she is subject to him, lest rejected by women, lust should drive men to seek something else, or to fall on their own sex.
Woman gets her name, therefore, from her female sex, not as a result of her corruption of man's integrity, as the words of the holy scripture show. For Eve was made directly from her husband's side, and was called 'woman' before she had been touched by a man, as the scripture says: 'He made the rib a woman' (see Genesis, 2: 22).
A virgin, virgo, is so called because she is in the green, viridus, or blooming age of her life