i. Human beings and their parts (De homine et partibus eius) 1. Nature (natura) is so called because it causes something to be born (nasci, ppl. natus), for it has the power of engendering and creating. Some people say that this is God, by whom all things have been created and exist. 2. Birth (genus) is named from generating (gignere, ppl. genitus), and the term is derived from ‘earth,’ from which all things are born, for in Greek ‘earth’ is called γῆ. 3. Life (vita) is named on account of its vigor (vigor) or because it holds the power (vis) of being born and growing. Whence even trees are said to possess life, because they are generated and grow. 4. Human beings (homo) are so named because they were made from the soil (humus), just as is [also] said in Genesis (cf. 2:7): “And God created man of the soil of the earth.” Incorrectly, the whole human is named from this term, that is, the whole human consisting of both substances, the association of soul and body. But strictly speaking, ‘human being’ is from ‘soil.’

5. The Greeks called the human being ἄνϑρωπος because he has been raised upright from the soil and looks upward in contemplation of his Creator (perhaps cf. ὤψ, “eye, face, countenance”). The poet Ovid describes this when he says (Met. 1.84):