"Robigo genus est vitii, quo culmi pereunt, quod a rusticanis
calamitas dicitur."
Then follows the note of Donatus on Ter. _Eun_. i. 1. 34.
It appears to me, if "_calamitas_" were derived from _calamus_, it
would mean something very different from what it does.
Another suggestion is, that the first syllable is the same as the
root of _cad-o_, to fall; _l_ and _d_, everybody knows, are
easily interchangeable: as Odysseus, Ulixes: [Greek: dakruon],
_lacrima_, _tear_, &c. &c. If so, _calamitas_ is a corrupted form
of _cadamitas_. Mar. Victorinus, _De Orthogr_. p. 2456., says:--
"Gueius Pompeius Magnus et scribebat et dicebat _Kadamitatem_
pro _Kalamitatem_."--(Quoted from Bothe's _Poetæ_," _Scenici
Latinorum_, vol. v. p. 21.)
But how is the -_amitas_ to be explained? I may as well add,
that Döderlein, with his usual felicity, derives it from [Greek:
kolouo].