Questions tagged [derivation]
For questions about deriving words from other words, like "dictator" from "dictare".
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"Friendless" in Latin?
I am looking for a general strategy for translating adjectives like "friendless" into Latin.
My interest is general, but for concreteness I will discuss my thoughts in light of this example.
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Is there a relationship of derivation between a noun, verb, and adjective that are related in meaning?
In Latin, many adverbs can be derived from adjectives.
There are also verbs, adjectives, nouns that describe the same thing or are related in meanings, in possibly different ways, including but not ...
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What relationships (e.g. derivation) are between pauci and paucus?
Keller's Learn to Read Latin says:
pauci, paucae, pauca few
but I can't find it in Glare's Oxford Latin Dictionary. Is pauci a common or rare Latin word?
In the dictionary, I find:
paucus few.
...
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Short vs long i in inest vs īnsunt
Why is the i in inest short, while the i in īnsunt is long?
As far as I know (see for example https://glosbe.com/la/en/insum, or LLPSI), the conjugation of this verb in the present tense goes like ...
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For what Vulpes --> Vulpecula, but Sorex never will be Soreculus
Vulpes --> Vulpecula, all right, but:
Sorex --> Soriculus, not Soreculus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soriculus
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What does "arcularia" mean in the species name "Nassarius arcularia"?
I encountered the species name Nassarius arcularia and I'm very confused about its construction.
Per Wikipedia, this name refers to a species of "nassa mud snails" or "dog whelks". ...
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Is there an English word derived from τάσσω, with a similar meaning of arranging/organising?
Apologies if this is the wrong site to ask this on.
I am looking for an English word that is derived from Ancient Greek τάσσω, meaning I arrange, I draw up, or I order. I would like a word that evokes ...
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What are the semantic, pragmatic, or other differences between -tio, -tus, -tura, and other action nouns
Salvete Omnes,
While answering this question on a motto related to computers, I was going to question the authority of Vicipaedia's use of words derived from programma, particularly action nouns from ...
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A Latin adjective for New York?
The city of New York is often called Novum Eboracum in Latin.
Let us ignore other options for the purpose of this question; I just want to understand city names with two or more words through an ...
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Why is the root vowels of 'salsus' and 'saliō' from 'sāl' shortened?
Working my way through the Duolingo course, I noticed that salsus has a short root vowel, even though sāl, sālis¹ is long-voweled. The etymology entry on Wiktionary states that the adjective is from ...
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Is there a general method for creating an adjective from a noun?
In an answer to making an adjective from a noun, Joonas mentions that creating adjectives from nouns is not a trivial matter and gives a solution to making an adjective out of chicken for an ...
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What construction is "διδαχή?"
There is an interesting early Christian document called the Διδαχή, translated into English as "The Teaching." The word seems to be classical, not just Koine. Is this some kind of more ...
user3597
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Example of noun described by adjective of the same root (like "homely home" or "reddish red")
In theory, we can easily attach a derived adjective to it's noun source. But, as far as I see this, it almost never happens. Yet, I would say, there are very few examples in some languages that are ...
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Is there an etymological connection between "comitia" and "comes"?
In the Roman Republic, the word comitia was used for the various popular assemblies (e.g. comitia centuriata). I can't find any clear indication online as to its etymological roots.
I was wondering ...
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effeminare = evirare (?)
Assuming that (i) the meanings of vir and femina are indeed opposite and (ii) the meaning of the prefix ex- is quite transparent, why are the verbs evirare and effeminare then synonymous? Are there ...
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Is there a diminutive form for agent nouns?
I recently read a joke about the use of Latin -tor and -trix nouns in modern English. The punchline was that "trix is for kids".
This got me wondering: Is there a way to make diminutives from agent ...
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Is there a tool/website to see which non-Latin words are derived from a given Latin word?
One way I use to learn Latin vocabulary is to seek for derived Spanish/English words which meaning I know. For instance, gressus derived into egresar and ingresar, Spanish words which mean to exit ("e[...
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Formation of words like "essive" or "adessive"
In modern linguistic terminology there are grammatical cases named essive and adessive. However, from a Latinate point of view those formations look abnormal: Usually, the ending -ivus is attached to ...
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Italiānus "native or inhabitant of Italy" - Latin or Macaronicanese?
I've come across the adjective italiānus in reference to the modern people of Italy, their culture and language in Internet Latin, and found it suspicious. I would like to know:
whether it's ...
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Why do numbered months in the ancient Roman calendar have different suffixes?
Wikipedia and other sites detail the (possibly legendary) ancient Roman "Calendar of Romulus":
I'm curious about the suffixes to the "numbered" months, the fifth through tenth. The names of the ...
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Composites from -σις words
How does one form composites from words in '-σις'?
For example, if one wishes to name the fear of vaxing fat,
using πάχυνσις, is it παχυνσοφοβία; or παχυνσεοφοβία?
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Did the Romans create any irregular verbs?
Most newly-formed Latin verbs were put into the nice, regular first conjugation: both deriving from existing words (dīcō, -ere > dīctō, -āre) and with borrowings (Graecissō, -āre).
English is mostly ...
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Does the agent noun always come from the perfect participle stem?
When answering this question, I wrote that an agent noun is always derived from the perfect participle stem.
As the (singular masculine form of the) perfect participle is listed in many dictionaries, ...
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'plecto, plectere, plexi', -tor/-sor form (agent noun)
How would one add the agent noun suffix (normally -tor) to the verb 'plecto' (I weave/twist)? It's been a few years — about 10 — but if I recall correctly, verbs whose stem ends in 't' ...
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What is a derivative for the Latin word, liberi (children)? [closed]
Derivative can be anything for liberi.
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What augmentative options are there in Latin?
Augmentative, the opposite of diminutive, is a derived word that means greater size or extent.
Diminutives are common and productive in Latin, but how about the opposite?
Some Romance languages have ...
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Translating "order of protection and conservation"
An author friend recently asked me for help with a Latin name: in his book, a group calls itself the "order of protection and conservation", but in Latin to be pretentious (altum videtur…).
My ...
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How to choose correct word variants?
I asked a question earlier.
For some time now, it's occured to me that a pattern is forming: All my questions about the Latin language are basically the same. The subjects change, but the underlying ...
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Who carries something ending in -ium?
There is a traditional Finnish instrument (kannel or kantele) which tends to be called nablium in Latin.
How do I form the adjective for someone bearing this instrument using -fer?
There are things ...
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Interchange between u- and o-stem forms in suffixed derivatives (e.g. "lectus", "lectuarius")
A little while back, I asked a question about the alleged Latin word "tribalis" (which it seems was not actually used), and I mentioned that it seemed to me that it would be an irregular formation ...
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Forming compound words in Latin: helicopter
I would like to understand the formation of Latin compound words through the example of the word "helicopter".
This obviously has a Greek origin, and I would like redo the construction with two Latin ...
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Equivalent of "-less"
Given a Latin noun, how does one transform it into an adjective meaning "lacking [noun]" (the equivalent of English "-less")? I know that "having (a lot of) [noun]" would be formed with the ending "-...
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How can participles (inflected forms) be distinguished from deverbal adjectives (derived forms) in Latin?
Many modern linguistic analyses of languages like English draw a sharp theoretical distinction between participles, which are analyzed as inflected forms belonging to the paradigm of some verb, and ...
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What is the diminutive of κῆτος?
A classic diminutive suffix in Ancient Greek is -ίδιον, which forms a neuter second noun.
But what happens when this is applied to a noun with a vowel in the stem? For a concrete example, if I wanted ...
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Why vesperascit instead of vesperescit?
I was recently working on a little translation project and my intuition and memory suggested that "evening comes" is vesperescit.
Checking dictionaries corrected me: it is vesperascit instead.
Why is ...
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Inflections of Ζεύς
Διώνη is the name of a Titaness, a nymph, and Phoenician goddess. And according to the Wikipedia article on said Titaness, it's derived from the feminine form of the genitive of Ζεύς. And according to ...
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What is plant-based or vegetarian food?
Is there a Latin adjective which means "vegetarian" or "plant-based" and can be applied to food?
In this context, I don't need to make a distinction between vegetarian and vegan, for example; I just ...
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Instances of Actions - Verbs into Nouns
In English, we can take a verb like "swim" and refer to it as a noun in reference to occurrences. For example,
"That was a good swim,"
"I have three swims next week."
Is there a similar construct ...
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Rules to constructing a proper compound noun in Ancient Greek
I know this StackExchange is dedicated to Latin, but since one for Greek/Ancient Greek is currently under proposal, I was advised to post my question here after having posted it on Linguistics. I am ...
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Is the suffix -izo, -izare, -izavi, -izatum formal?
The suffix -ize (or similar) are used to form verbs from nouns and adjectives in several Romance languages.
Wiktionary suggests that this stems from the vulgar latin -izo, -izare, -izavi, -izatum, ...
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What is the relation between -men and -mentum?
When answering this question about incrementum, I recalled the similarity of the suffixes -mentum and -men.
If the linked Wiktionary pages are to be trusted, they are etymologically related, both ...
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Suffix counterpart of klepto-?
I'm trying to come up with a suffix counterpart to the prefix klepto- (basically meaning "related to theft"), seeing that no such thing exists (and thus what I'm doing is technically neologism). For ...
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Why homicide instead of hominicide?
The word homicida is attested in classical Latin, and the English "homicide" is an obvious loan.
The word seems to come from homo and caedere.
Why is the first part homi- instead of homini-?
The stem ...
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How productive was the participle in -menus in Latin?
Greek has the medium participle ending in -menos.
It has a couple of occurrences in Latin, too, of which I only seem to remember alere > alumnus now.
How many words are there in Latin that contain ...
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About the formation of the word "euthanasia"
The etymology of euthanasia is pretty straightforward, as this site shows:
Early 17th century (in the sense ‘easy death’): from Greek, from eu
‘well’ + thanatos ‘death’.
What is less ...
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Etymology of "ingeniōsus" and "ingenuus"
Can someone please explain how these two words,
ingenuus
ingeniōsus
both deriving from gignō, come to mean what they respectively do?
BACKGROUND
According to Wiktionary, ingenuus is made of in- + ...
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Deriving adjectives from city names
One can often derive adjectives from city names, the most famous example probably being Romanus from Roma.
Such derivatives are typically formed with -anus or -ensis.
My impression is that -anus is ...
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Expressing a number of years with a single word
An answer to an earlier question about age of wine introduced me to adjectives for specific ages in years.
Similarly, there are nouns for periods of time in years.
For example:
bimus & biennium
...
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Comparing per- and de- as intensifying prefixes
Both per- an de- can be used as intensifying prefixes.
It seems that per- is far more common, but also de- occurs (detritus, defetisci, deplorare…).
There is also deperire, where de- seems to ...
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A verb for Googling in Latin
In English "Google" has become a verb meaning "to search using Google".
In Finnish the name "Google" is not a valid verb, so it has been modified to "googlata" which is conjugated regularly.
How ...
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