Questions tagged [derivation]
For questions about deriving words from other words, like "dictator" from "dictare".
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Are there feminine and neuter versions of "professor"?
From many verbs one can derive an agent noun for each gender:
computare > computator (m), computatrix (f), computatrum (n)
scribere > scriptor, scriptrix, scriptrum
Some of these derivatives ...
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What is the difference between -us and -io?
One can derive nouns from verbs by attaching -us or -io to the perfect participle stem.
For example, movere gives rise to motus (fourth declension) and motio.
The meanings of these derived words are ...
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Is cultura a future participle?
Some nouns derived from verbs look like future participles: cultura from colere, sepultura from sepelire, scriptura from scribere…
These do not have a future meaning, but are merely names for ...
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Did the Romans derive verbs from names?
I know the Romans did derive verbs from nouns (laudare, finire, lucere…), but did they ever derive verbs from names?
The Greeks did, for example forming homerizein (ὁμηρίζ&...
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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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How is the supine related to the derived fourth declension noun?
I asked yesterday about the word venatu.
There was a good answer and good comments, but I want to ask a broader related question more specifically — especially due to TKR's comment.
I want to know how ...
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Stem for derivatives like figura, statura and cultura
I learned in a recent question that derived nouns like figura, statura and cultura do not always look like the future participle but are actually formed from a different stem.
Examples of differences: ...
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Variations on the diminutive: -olus and -ulus
The usual Latin diminutive suffix is -ulus (or -ula or -ulum).
However, it sometimes appears as -olus, like in filiolus, aculeolus, petiolus, and bestiola.
(And perhaps Venezuela, Venetiola, is a ...
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Can the supine ablative be used for motion?
I came across an Asterix translated into Latin.
In the first story page the village chief notices that Asterix and Obelix return from a hunt and says: Asterix atque Obelix venatu redeunt!
My question ...
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Constructing Latin diminutives
In the course of trying to construct an accurate diminutive form of the word abdomen - which for the record is Latin in origin (in the form abdōmen), having been borrowed by English via Middle French -...
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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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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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Can there be double diminutives in Latin?
I've been reading some Latin of the 17th and 18th centuries and am wondering if it is possible for there to be "double diminutives." As I understand it, the word "cerebellum" (Oxford Latin = "brain") ...
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What does the suffix -mentum add to a word's meaning?
Lewis and Short lists 275 words ending in -mentum, many of which have come into English:
argumentum
augmentum
documentum
fragmentum
pigmentum
segmentum
etc.
Wiktionary (cited as an example, not as ...
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Did grammarians consider the adverbial -e a case ending?
For adjectives of the first and second declension, the corresponding adverb is formed with the ending -e.
For example, pulchre (beautifully) comes from pulcher (beautiful).
Canonically this -e is ...
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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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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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2
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Translating -ish and -aster endings
There are ways in Latin of expressing less-than-completeness, but I'm intrigued by the strange-ish (!) and allegedly related etymologies given in English dictionaries for these two endings, which are ...
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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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How to derive nouns from adjectives?
I know several ways to derive nouns from adjectives:
audax > audacia,
laetus > laetitia,
pius > pietas,
magnus > magnitudo.
Questions:
Are there any rules that govern which one of -ia, -itia, -tas ...
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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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Nominalized adjective in Latin?
How to nominalize adjectives in Latin? In English, adjectives can be nominalized with a slight different in meaning: "the sick man", "the sick".
In German, it's possible to nominalize the present ...
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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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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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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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'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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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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