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Question 54. Why do they call the flesh-market Macellum?
Solution. Was it not by corrupting the word μάγειρος, a
cook, as with many other words, that the custom hath prevailed? For c and g are nigh akin to one another, and
g came more lately into use, being inserted among the
other letters by Sp. Carbilius; and now by lispers and
stammerers l is pronounced instead of r. Or this matter
may be made clear by a story. It is reported, that at Rome
there was a stout man, a robber, who had robbed many,
and being taken with much difficulty, was brought to condign punishment: his name was Macellus, out of whose
riches a public meat-market was built, which bare his
name.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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