man "who performs feats of strength in public". Rabun Taylor disagrees and sees a more as a kind of rent boy who hung around in the baths in search of patrons. also frequently appears in the poetry of Catullus. He uses as a nickname for Mamurra, as if it were an ordinary name, as in his epigram 105: ("That prick tries to climb the Pimpleian mount (of poetry);the Muses drive him out with pitchforks.") (Pimpleia was a place in Pieria in northern Greece associated with the Muses (the nine goddesses of poetry and music).) Etymology The etymology of is obscure, although outwardly it would appear to be a diminutive of , gen. , the "mind" (i.e.; "the little mind"). Cicero's letter 9:22 relates it to , a spearmint stalk. Tucker's Etymological Dictionary of Latin relates it to , "to project outwards", , "chin", and , "a mountain", all of which suggest an Indo-European root *men-. Other hypotheses have also been suggested, though none generally accepted. Synonyms and metaphors is also a basic Latin obscenity for "penis", in particular for a penis with the foreskin retracted due to erection and glans exposed, as in the illustration of the god Mercury below. As a result, it was "not a neutral technical term, but an emotive and highly offensive word", most commonly used in despective or threatening contexts of violent acts against a fellow male or rival rather than mere sex ( "fucking"). It is found frequently in graffiti of the type (= ) ("Whoever reads this, you're a dickhead"). It is found less frequently in Classical Latin literature, but it does appear in Catullus 28: ("O Memmius, while I lay on my back for a long timeyou fed me good and slow with that entire beam of yours.But as far as I can see, you guys have met with the same fate:for you have been stuffed with a "verpa" no less large!") Catullus is here speaking metaphorically. He complains that when he accompanied Gaius Memmius, the governor of Bithynia (57-56 BC), as part of his entourage, he was not allowed to make money out of the position. From this poem it is clear that Catullus's friends Veranius and Fabullus were kept under an equally close rein when they accompanied Lucius Piso to his province of Macedonia in 57-55 BC. By extension, as a masculine adjective or noun, referred to a man whose