"The word is something which 'batters the air [(aerem verberat)]; hence it is also called a word [(verbum)]'."

     Bernard of Clairvaux, In sollemnitate apostolorum Petri et Pauli sermo 2, as quoted by Otto Hermann Pesch, "Theologie des Wortes bei Thomas von Aquin," Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 66, no. 4 (1969):  449-450 (437-465).  Cf. Bernhard von Clairvaux:  Sämtliche Werke lateinisch/deutsch, ed. Gerhard B. Winkler, vol. 8 (Insbruck:  Tyrolia-Verlag, 1997), p. 454, l. 2:  "Aerem verberat, unde et verbum dicitur".  According to Pesch, this was then a common etymological derivation.