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While words ending in -ter are not duals, as some Roman grammarians taught of uter and neuter, in origin they are connected with the dual notion, the ending -ter being a comparative ending. It is interesting to see how far they continue to express this notion, how far they pass on to the expression of three or more, or pass back to one. In this respect the uses of inter will prove noteworthy.

Inter has cognates in all branches of Indo-Germanic: in Sanskrit and Zend, in Armenian and Old Bulgarian, in Greek and Italic, in German and Celtic. In English we have under, in German unter meaning ‘among’ as well as ‘below’. In Latin, while it usually means ‘between’, or ‘among’, it is at times the equivalent of per. Its derivation is not obscure, the first syllable being the Latin in, Greek ἐν, English in. When en- is followed by a syllable with an initial mute, the e becomes i in Latin, and so the Greek ἐντός appears there as intus. We can see the same tendency in our pronunciation of England. The cognate of inter in Greek, ἔντερα, is a substantive, not a preposition.

The ending -ter is evidently the same as the Greek ending -τερος, and we have it in the Latin exterus, which develops a double comparative, exterior. The corresponding interus has disappeared, interior having taken its place. It is the usual ending for comparatives in Sanskrit; and there, too, it is often joined with prepositions, as in uttaras ‘higher’, from ud ‘up’. In English and German the usual comparative ending is -er, which we see in the Latin superum and inferum. While in Latin the idea of below is usually given by inferus and infra, inter in composition has this meaning at times, as in interire ‘to go down’ and interficere ‘to slay’. We shall understand this shifting better if we compare the use of imus ‘lowest’, primarily the superlative of in (=in-mus) and meaning inmost, as we see it in Catullus’s phrase: imis exarsit tota medullis (64. 93). But it is commonly felt to be a superlative of inferus, as in: imis avolsam solvit radicibus (Aen. 8. 237-8), where in relation to the earth ‘lowest’ is also ‘inmost’.

Inter, then, as a preposition means primarily ‘between two objects’, as in: qui (mons) est inter Sequanos et Helvetios (B.G. 1.2). Virgil often places it so as to present us with a picture of this meaning, as in: terras inter caelumque (Aen. 4. 256). But just as the dual passes from a pair to two or more pairs, so we find inter passing to two pairs in: namque manus inter maestorumque ora parentum (Aen. 2. 681), and then to several in: ante oculos interque manus sunt omnia vestras (11. 311). In this way it seems to have been transferred to a plurality of objects with the meaning ‘among’, as in: micat inter omnes Iulium sidus, velut inter ignes Luna minores (Od. 1. 12. 46-8).

Scholars have been puzzled by a curious repetition of inter ‘between’, found in both prose and verse. We read: inter Hectora Priamiden animosum atque inter Achillem ira fuit capitalis (Sat. 1. 7. 11-13), and again: Nestor componere lites inter Peliden festinat et inter Atriden (Ep. 1. 2. 11-12). Wickham’s note is: ‘an illogical, but a Latin use’, and he compares: quid intersit inter popularem ... et inter constantem (Cic. Lael. 95. 25). But though we feel this use illogical for inter ‘between’, it seems quite logical for inter ‘among’, as in: Lycus inter et hostes inter et arma fuga muros tenet (Aen. 9. 556-7), with which compare: fortunate senex, hic inter flumina nota et fontes sacros frigus captabis opacum (Buc. 1. 51-2). Either is right with inter ‘among’; but for inter ‘between’ we feel that the logical use is that in: inter Padum atque Alpes (Liv. 5. 35.2). We have then inter ‘between’ at times in Latin following a syntax not unusual for inter ‘among’; a syntax which gives a higher degree of weight and balance to the pair in competition.

But we read in Lucretius: inter saepta meant voces et clausa domorum transvolitant (1.354-5) ‘voices pass through walls, and fly through houses shut’, Munro. It seems clear that here inter is used for per; and in Virgil:

Ecce autem flammis inter tabulata volutus

Ad caelum undabat vertex turrimque tenebat (Aen. 12. 672-3),

‘and lo! a spire of flame wreathing through the floors wavered up skyward and held a turret fast’, Mackail. In this sense of per it is more usual for time than for place. Cicero writes: qui inter annos tot unus inventus sit (Leg. Man. 68. 23), and: quae inter decem annos ... nefarie flagitioseque facta sunt (Verr. 1. 37. 13); and Livy: inter ipsum pugnae tempus decem naves regiae ... ad Thronium in sinu Maliaco stabant (36. 20.5). In all these examples it seems more natural to use per than inter. We find Gellius writing: qui plus cernunt oculis per noctem quam inter diem (9.4.6). But it is easier to see how the use arose for place than for time. We expect to find: inter ripas fluit Tiberis; but Virgil writes:

ubi Lydius arva

Inter opima virum leni fluit agmine Thybris (Aen. 2. 781-2),

where arva is substituted for ripas, the whole for the part. So we have inter arva, where in prose we should write per arva, or per agros. And so we read:

hunc inter (lucum) fluvio Tiberinus amoeno

Verticibus rapidis et multa flavus arena

In mare prorumpit. (Aen. 7. 30-2.)

Of course in return we may expect per for inter, and in:

Principio delubra adeunt pacemque per aras exquirunt (Aen. 4. 56-7),

Sidgwick translates per aras, ‘amid the altars’. In: concussam bacchatur fama per urbem (4.666) we have a poetic expression for: turbatos bacchatur fama inter cives. Perhaps we might connect with these examples the verbs interire and perire with closely approximate meanings. But it is quite plain that inter has a singular, as well as a plural and dual force.