"Inter Faeces..." Quote

[Douglas G. Wilson]

Has anyone found ANY instance of this expression or equivalent in ANY
language which is older than the Verville example which I recently posted?

I find equivalents in French and German and English and Latin, using
various words and word orders.

Maybe the Latin one is not the original.

Even if there is a Latin original maybe it's not this one.

Does the 'quotation' in question look like good honest Latin? Or is it one
of those "illegitimi carborundum" inventions which is much more recent?

Googling <<inter faeces et>>, I find NO example which is not a variant of
the saying in question. There's a lot of Latin on the Web; did nobody ever
say "between feces and ..." in any other context? Maybe there's something
basically wrong with the expression "inter faeces"?

Is the accusative plural of "faex" really "faeces"? Looks OK in principle
but there's no example available at Perseus and my old "Gildersleeve's"
says "faex" is a defective noun, with no accusative plural occurring. I
guess that refers to Classical Latin; would it pertain to later Latin too?
Would it pertain to Augustine's Latin? I don't know.

Would Augustine have used the word "faeces" for excrement, or would he have
used "stercus" or "excrementum" or some other word? Classical Latin "faex"
= "sediment"/"dregs" generally did not refer to feces, and the examples at
Perseus do not include one with this sense.

Somebody knowledgeable in Latin might be able to make a more definitive
assessment.

-- Doug Wilson


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