Questions tagged [declinatio]
For questions about declension—the inflection of Latin nouns and adjectives to mark grammatical features such as case and number.
111
questions
6
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2answers
389 views
Does an irregular word decline regularly if it is used as a proper name?
Does an irregular word decline regularly if it is used as a proper name? For example, imagine there is a dog name Rex (=King). We might have:
Vide Regem currentem.
See Rex run. However, since Rex is ...
5
votes
1answer
119 views
How to decline Greek proper nouns ending in -ēs in Latin?
I was browsing the OLD today and then I noticed the following entry:
Stagīrītēs, Stagē- ~-ae m. A person who originates from Stagira in Macedonia.
Two examples are given there:
Aristotelem ~em Cic. Ac....
4
votes
1answer
240 views
Is unius an irregular genitive?
I notice that the genitive of unus can apparently be either the regular uni, or can also be unius.
Is this form, unius, just a completely irregular oddity, or is there some logical precedent for it? ...
6
votes
1answer
116 views
What is the etymology of 'cuius' and is it different from 'quis'?
'cuius' (and 'cui') is an interesting word in that it stands out as different from the other terms in the declension of 'quis'.
It seems to be pronounced differently. 'quis' is /kwis/ but 'cuius' is /...
6
votes
2answers
451 views
What is the difference between ἐκκλησίας and ἐκκλησίαν?
I know the root word is ἐκκλησία, but I don't understand the declensions.
4
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2answers
435 views
In “fortis fortuna adiuvat” is “fortis” accusative plural?
Fortis fortuna adiuvat, is fortis accusative plural here?
Fortis has different forms for the same conjugation as I see at Wiktionary, and I couldn't find which forms adiuvare takes as an exhaustive ...
4
votes
1answer
78 views
Deponent verb participle gender
If we consider a deponent verb such as arbitrārī in the perfect tense, hence arbitrātus sum/es/est, is the participle arbitrātus supposed to be declined like a regular adjective? For example if one ...
13
votes
1answer
480 views
Why are so many Latin men's names (cognomina) in the usually-feminine first declension?
The first declension, with the -a ending, is usually feminine.
Why are so many men's names (cognomina), however, in the first declension -- Seneca, Cinna, Aggrippa, Sulla, and more? This is far out of ...
1
vote
1answer
49 views
Carpe sciurum (sieze/harvest the squirrel?)
Would 'carpe sciurum' be a functional translation of 'seize the squirrel'?
(As in to 'harvest' or 'pluck' the squirrel?)
6
votes
1answer
109 views
Nepos' Themistocles: ut ingratis omnes ad depugnandum cogerentur?
I am reading the biography of Themistocles by Cornelius Nepos. He recounts the story of how Themistocles used a deceit to bring about the naval engagement that went down in history as the famous ...
3
votes
3answers
134 views
What case does 'plus' take?
I don't have any information about what case to use with 'plus' (or 'magis'). In dictionaries usually only prepositions take some case, and it is showed in parentheses.
In my language, 'more' takes ...
9
votes
1answer
200 views
How did the fourth declension neuter dative singular become different from the non-neuter ending?
Usually, when a neuter case ending is different from the non-neuter ending in the same declension, the difference is in the nominative or accusative case (e.g. -us and -um in the second declension ...
0
votes
0answers
58 views
Best Latin Websites to learn/revise/practice tests
I was wondering what the best websites for (a) learning latin and (b) revising/doing practice tests are?
More specifically, I was wondering if anyone happened to have or know where I could find some ...
5
votes
1answer
76 views
Where does the -τ- come from in the oblique stem of some Greek neuter nouns with nom/acc sing forms in -ς?
I just learned that some Greek neuter nouns of the third declension with a nominative/accusative singular form ending in -ς have oblique stems in -τ-, which surprised me.
I expected τ-stem neuter ...
5
votes
3answers
591 views
Sentence which includes an example of each case
I'm looking for a sentence which includes the usage of each case of Latin. For example, a student could mark each word in the sentence to indicate its case and function for ease of learning.
Extreme ...
14
votes
4answers
4k views
Meaning of “dies illa” from Dies Irae
The first verse from "Dies Irae" goes like
Dies irae, dies illa
I'm trying to understand what "illa" is referring to.
According to the declension table for pronouns, "illa" corresponds either to ...
8
votes
2answers
1k views
How should one latinize this name?
A friend of mine, whose name is Raoni (he's brazilian, his name comes from a native root, also the tonic vowel is the very last [i]), started learning latin and I've been studying for a while. I ...
17
votes
1answer
600 views
What are the relative frequencies of cases in Latin?
Latin has seven cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, vocative, locative.
What are their relative frequencies in classical Latin?
I suppose an answer would have to be based on ...
12
votes
2answers
495 views
Which Latin declension is most common?
Does anyone know the rough proportions of Latin words that fall into each of the five declensions? Which is most common? Which is least common?
9
votes
1answer
78 views
Why is the proper name Apollos not declined in the Vulgate
Saint Apollos was a companion of Saint Paul mentioned several times in the New Testament. In the Latin Vulgate, his name is transliterated as an indeclinable noun, Apollo. My question is, why was his ...
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vote
0answers
55 views
Checking Greek declensions: software or reference?
Although quite a few Greek words follow the same simple patterns of declension, I'm finding that there are enough complications that I'm often unsure of whether I'm getting it right. Is there a ...
3
votes
0answers
45 views
προσώπατα versus πρόσωπα, προσώπασι versus προσώποις in Homer
I'm working on learning Homeric vocabulary, and for this purpose I've written a script using CLTK to search for forms of a particular word through the Iliad and Odyssey. The idea is that I don't want ...
2
votes
1answer
76 views
Declination of “potentia” with preposition “in”
In philosophy, e.g. in Spinoza, there is the Latin word "potentia" that is often translated as a power, or capacity, to act (potentia agendi) and to suffer actions.
I am wondering what is the right ...
4
votes
2answers
460 views
How do you latinize the name “Cole”?
Salvete,
I can't figure out how I would go about latinizing my name. I would also
appreciate a declension of my latinized name. I was thinking that maybe "Colus,"
"Colis," or "Coleus" could work, ...
2
votes
0answers
32 views
What order of the cases did the Romans use when declining nouns? [duplicate]
In modern books, two orders of the cases can be found: nom, gen, dat, acc, abl, and nom, acc, gen, dat, abl. Which one did the Romans use? Or did they use some entirely different order?
4
votes
0answers
70 views
Why is the form “Antares” used as an ablative in some Latin texts?
Jam inquiro nomen stellae Antares. Multa documenta quae "ab Antares" dicunt comperi. At non scio ablativi qui in "es" terminantur. Potestne nomen "Antares" indeclinabile esse? Quare?
Exempla:
"Lanx ...
2
votes
2answers
136 views
Essentialia negotii transaction's essentials
So essentialia negotii is transaction's essentials. How would one say The transaction's essential things, transactions' essential things, essential things of the transaction and essential things of ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Is the adjective in latin put after the noun or before?
E.g Is the legal term essentialia negotii correct use of the grammar(declension, agreement, word order) rules or not?
Should it not be negotiorum essentialium so that the case, the number and the ...
4
votes
1answer
89 views
Declension uncertainty regarding Ablative / Nominative
I'm struggling, particularly, with determining the correct case for some of the words in the following expressions:
Natura est semper invicta
Here, is the word "invicta" in Ablative or Nominative ...
5
votes
1answer
185 views
How did vāti-s become vātēs?
To my understanding, vātēs "bard" started out as an i-stem noun, built on the stem vāti- (probably from something like *weh₂t-i-). So I would expect the nominative to look something like *vāti-s.
...
5
votes
3answers
177 views
Where does the word “tudes” 'hammer' show up in texts?
Lewis and Short has an entry for a noun tŭdes, with the genitive singular given as "is (ĭtis, acc. to Fest. p. 253 Müll.)". It is defined as "a hammer, mallet". The two citations in the entry show the ...
5
votes
1answer
103 views
Can Greek letter names be declined?
There seems to be solid evidence that Latin letter names were indeclinable.
But in Greek, several letters' names do fit into standard declension patterns: sigma, for instance, might actually be a -ma ...
6
votes
1answer
162 views
Dies and the fifth declension
In an answer to this question on Ζεύς Draconis mentions (quoting his own post on another site):
The accusative form of the root, *dyēm (cf AGrk Zēn), also survived in Latin, in the form *diēm > ...
3
votes
1answer
72 views
Words belong to the first and second declension at the same time
Exter, magnus, diduus, they all belong to the first declension and also the second declension.
Why these adjectives are so special?
4
votes
1answer
230 views
Do first-declension neuter nouns or adjectives have plural forms?
Although almost all first-declension nouns are feminine or masculine, there seem to be a handful of adjectives that belong to the first declension for all genders, and at least one substantive noun, ...
7
votes
2answers
249 views
Was “Pascha” ever used as a neuter first-declension noun?
Before today, I thought that there was no neuter substantive1 noun with a nominative singular in a and a genitive singular in ae. However, I have encountered references to a possible exception: some ...
4
votes
2answers
3k views
How to find the stem of any word?
I am wondering if the stem of every word has an exact form?
For example:
For the word genus, how could you determine is it gen or gener?
For the word līber, how could you determine is it līber or ...
2
votes
1answer
125 views
Declining “dulcis” in context
I want to translate the phrase
It's just like a big recorder
where "recorder" is the musical instrument. The generic Latin for "flute" seems to be "tibia" (pipe), so I settled on using the Latin ...
5
votes
1answer
103 views
How are “Arsaces” and “Gotarzes” declined, and why?
Declinatione nominum latinorum a nominibus graecis quae -ης finiuntur perturbor.
Dictionarium L&S exhibet "Arsăces, is m." a nomine graeco Ἀρσάκης. (E in syllaba ultima de "Arsăces" longum esse ...
5
votes
1answer
144 views
How did vulgus get its ending?
Vulgus "crowd, mob, common people" is a neuter second-declension noun. But unlike most second-declension neuters, it ends in -us, like a masculine.
How did this happen? Is there an etymological ...
5
votes
1answer
121 views
Genitives like “axeos”
I recently encountered a text written in Latin in Finland about two centuries ago using the form axeos.
From context it was clear that it was a genitive, and it looks just like the Greek genitive of ...
6
votes
2answers
490 views
What consonants can a noun stem end in?
As TKR mentions, third-declension nouns in Latin have stems ending with a consonant (*). Off the top of my head, I can think of stems ending in various different consonants: rex, for example, has a G ...
5
votes
3answers
197 views
Do any non-second-declension neuter nouns end in m?
I have the impression that the ending -m appears on neuter nouns (in the nominative/accusative form) only in the second declension, but I don't know whether there are any exceptions. Is there any ...
4
votes
1answer
152 views
Why aren't cardinal numbers over three inflected?
I've been looking through some etymologies and it seems to me that cardinals past trēs aren't inflected. Is this correct, and if so, what's the logic in forming words with indeclinable numbers? Take, ...
4
votes
1answer
404 views
“Deus meus”, aut “Deus mī”?
I was taught that meus had a special irregular vocative, mī. (So "my father" in the vocative would be pater mī, not pater meus.)
However, there's a line that shows up a few times in the ...
2
votes
1answer
425 views
Different greek cases for Theos
Trying to improve my understanding of biblical greek and ran across something odd.
Theos - Θεός is nominative.
Theon - Θεόν is accusative.
TheO - Θεῷ is dative.
Theou - Θεοῦ genitive.
Theoi - θεοί ...
10
votes
1answer
729 views
Exactly what is a declension?
I was reading a Latin grammar book (Jenney's First Year Latin, for the curious) having recently resolved to learn a bit about the language and what I understood was as follows:
Latin is an inflected ...
7
votes
1answer
296 views
What declension are θορυβος and κοσμος?
I'm curious about what declension θορυβος and κοσμος are in Attic Greek. They appear to be second declension (θορυβος, -ου and κοσμος, -ου), but in the Athenaze workbook (which I'm slowly working my ...
2
votes
0answers
48 views
Sappho Lobel-Page 136: to amend, or not to amend?
The fragment is reported by the tradition as:
Ἦρος ἄγγελος ἱμερόφωνος ἀήδων
Or sometimes with ἡμερόφωνος. It would seem we just need to fix a psilosis for the third word. However, Edmonds and ...
8
votes
3answers
149 views
Can I pluralize letters of the alphabet?
In English, it's very common to talk about letters of the alphabet in the plural: he writes his R's backwards, for example, is a perfectly natural sentence. But the Latin names for the letters don't ...
