June 28, 2000

fascinate

I have been told that fascination comes from fascia, the original bundle of sticks surrounding an axe handle that was the sign of Imperial Rome. This has been verified. However, I have also been told that, prior to sticks and an axe, the original "fascia" were statues of erect phalluses. Is this true or a stretch of someone's overactive imagination?

Actually, fascination does not come from fascia. There are several different words involved here.

Let's start with fascia, which is 'a band or bandage'. It is related to fascis 'a bundle or packet'. The plural fasces was the name for the bundle of sticks with an axe projecting from it that was carried before the chief Roman magistrates as a symbol of power: the sticks for whipping, the axe for execution. The fasces was the symbol of the Fascist government in Italy which purported to be returning to the virtues of ancient Rome. The Indo-European source of "fascia" and "fasces" is *bhasko- 'gathering, bundle'. Fasces in English usually refers to the Roman emblem, but some authors have used it to mean 'a bundle'. Here's Melville in Moby Dick (1851): "With a frigate's anchors for my bridle-bitts and fasces of harpoons for spurs, would I could mount that whale and leap the topmost skies...."

Fascinate comes by way of French fasciner from Latin fascinare 'to bewitch or enchant'. Fascinate came into English at the end of the 16th century with the meaning 'to bewitch': "I was fascinated, by Jupiter: fascinated: but I will be unwitch'd, and reveng'd, by law" (Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, 1598). It also meant 'to cast under a spell by a look' and was used especially to refer to the power of a serpent over its victim. The word lost the witchcraft connotation after the 17th century but continued to have the sense of charming and enchanting in a way that is difficult to resist. Since the 19th century, the meaning of "fascinate" (like the meaning of "charm") has weakened considerably. It now most commonly means 'to attract and hold a person's attention by some special quality': "The next moment [Tom] was 'showing off' with all his might -- cuffing boys, pulling hair, making faces -- in a word, using every art that seemed likely to fascinate a girl and win her applause" (Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, 1876).

Now we come at last to the phallic connection. The Latin verb fascinare derives from the noun fascinus meaning 'spell or witchcraft'. In early Rome, children were given phallic amulets to wear around their necks as charms to ward off evil spirits. As a result of this practice, fascinus came to mean 'penis', and there was a minor phallic deity named Fascinus who was invoked to protect people against black magic, demons, and illness.

Etymologists disagree about the origin of "fascinus." It's possible that it was borrowed from Greek baskanos 'sorcerer'; if that's true, it comes from the Indo-European root *bho- meaning 'speak'. It is also not clear whether fasces and fascinus came from the same root. What is certain is that fascinus meant 'spell' before it meant 'penis' and that the god Fascinus was a fairly late development. In any event, the Roman magistrates did not walk the streets preceded by attendants carrying statues of erect phalluses.

Georgia