an ancient term among the Latins, used in a general sense to signify a verse; but more particularly to signify a spell, charm, form of expiation, or exorcism, couched in a few words placed in a mystic order, on which its efficacy depended. Pezron derives the word carmen from the Celtic carm, the shout of joy, or the verses which the ancient bards sung to encourage the soldiers before the combat.—Carmen was anciently a denomination given also to precepts, laws, prayers, imprecatives, and all solemn formulæ couched in a few words placed in a certain order, though written in prose. In which sense it was that the elder Cato wrote a Carmen de moribus, which was not in verse but in prose.