Questions tagged [example-request]
For questions that ask for an example of usage of a particular word or construction, either artificial or from literature.
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What are some examples of "subicio" being used to mean "submit, subject, present"?
In English, the epigraph of A Christmas Carol reads
I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with ...
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Are there other perfect imperatives than memento?
I learned from this previous question about the semantics of memento(te) that memento(te) is not morphologically a future imperative.
It turned to be a perfect imperative (semantically present), as it ...
- 114k
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Are any phonemic distinctions not represented in Latin?
Latin orthography seems to have been relatively phonemic. In other words, if long vowels are marked somehow (macrons or apices), there seems to be a straightforward mapping between letters and ...
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Do neuter plural nouns ever take singular verbs in Latin?
In Greek, it's well-known that neuter plural subjects take singular verb forms. This seems to be an old Indo-European feature, as it shows up in e.g. Anatolian languages as well.
Does this feature ...
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Was deliberately bad grammar ever used for emphasis in Latin?
In English, we can sometimes use deliberately incorrect grammar for effect in speech. The first example that comes to mind is a more colloquial example:
I ain't never going to do...
When I hear this ...
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Are there any words in Latin that are "light"?
In Latin, every syllable is either "light" or "heavy". A "heavy" syllable is one that has a long vowel and/or a coda consonant, and a "light" syllable is anything else. This distinction is important ...
- 67k
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Where is φιλημι attested?
I've often heard it said that Aeolic Greek used -μι endings on contract verbs, like φιλημι in Sappho (for Attic φιλέω/φιλῶ).
However, I can't seem to find this supposed "φιλημι" anywhere. It ...
- 67k
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Vocative Gerund
I am 99.9999% confident there is no purpose for a vocative gerund. Yet nothing seems to specifically disallow for such a construction. In theory something such as "odi te currendum" (in English, "I ...
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Sapiens: tasty or smart?
The verb sapere can mean tasting like something or having a sense of taste.
The latter can be understood figuratively close to "to be wise or sensible".
Dictionaries list the participle sapiens ...
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Has any Latin literature survived through the Arabs?
Some pieces of Greek literature have survived only through the Arabs.
But is there any classical Latin literature that has survived the same way?
This could mean translations from Latin to Arabic and ...
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How to wear unusual clothing?
If I wear a toga, I can say toga me vestio/induo or toga vestior/induor or I could use the adjective togatus.
For normal clothing it is clear what it means when I say that I wear it.
I do not know, ...
- 114k
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Can 'non' with gerundive mean both lack of obligation and negative obligation?
If a gerundive is used with non, can it mean both lack of obligation and negative obligation?
For example, can non loquendum est mean both "it is not necessary to speak" and "it is necessary not to ...
- 114k
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Are there Roman examples of "of Rome" instead of "Roman"?
In my experience it is extremely common to say, for example, rex Romanus instead of rex Romae.
In fact, I do not recall ever seeing a genitive when a local adjective can be used.
Translating to ...
- 114k
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An unambiguous example of 'īt'
The regular perfect them form for "he went" is iit.
In an answer to this question about two short versus one long vowel, TKR mentions that this form can be contracted to īt.
In a text without macrons ...
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Is 'volo' ever used with a future infinitive?
One can certainly use volo with an infinitive to express a wish:
Volo amari!
I want to be loved!
A future sense is often implied, as one would probably interpret that I'm not loved now if I wish ...
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Synizesis in perfect tense 'ui'
Can synizesis happen when the perfect stem ends in 'u' and the ending starts with a short 'i'?
For example, can the 'ui' in fuisti be synizesized1 into a diphthong?
In my understanding the two vowels ...
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Irreal condition expressed by a prepositional phrase
In English one can say:
Without you I would not be here.
This is roughly the same thing as:
If you had not helped, I would not be here.
The exact wording depends on context.
In the second ...
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Another use of gratia as in exempli gratia
A web search tells us that e.g. stands for exempli gratia where gratia has the literal translation of “for the sake of”. Can anyone give another example from the literature where gratia has this ...
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Classical example of homesickness
My dictionary translates "homesickness" as nostalgia or desiderium loci natalis, but the dictionary gives no source or era information.
Both of these are understandable, but I haven't found classical ...
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Are the pronoun-looking forms of quire attested?
The verb quire is conjugated like ire, and there are some forms that look like an interrogative or relative pronoun.
Those forms are quīs and quī.
Are these attested in classical ...
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Is *rīcus attested?
The word for "rich" in most Romance languages looks something like, well, "rich". It declines like a first/second declension adjective, and seems to go back to Germanic *rīkijaz (possibly through ...
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Is there a Latin equivalent to ἐπίκοινος?
The Ancient Greek grammatical tradition, going back to Dionysius Thrax (or maybe farther), distinguishes five types of nouns: masculine, feminine, neuter, common, and epicene (ἐπίκοινος). Four of ...
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How did the Romans refer to people of unknown gender?
Reference to other people's gender has become a delicate issue in today's world.
I expect that the Romans had no controversy over it, but they must have encountered situations where they have to write ...
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Conflict between form and content in ancient literature
I am looking for examples in ancient literature with conflict between form and content.
I believe such conflict is typically satirical, but there may be other reasons as well.
I would like to know in ...
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How has literature helped archaeology?
Is there a good example case where extant ancient literature has helped understand archaeological findings?
This could mean, for example, a Roman author mentioning a tool and its use, which has helped ...
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Example sentences where different cases mean different things
Can you suggest example sentences where changing the case of one noun keeps the sentence grammatical but changes meaning?
Preferably a noun in the same sentence could be used in all five main cases (...
- 114k
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Latinitas for other languages
Latinitas could be described as high quality Latin.
If I want to refer to the same thing for other languages, can I use nouns like Graecitas, Anglicitas or Finnicitas?
(I am not sure if Anglitas and ...
- 114k
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Ancient plagiarism
I have no doubt that plagiarism existed in the Greek and Roman antiquity: some authors must have copied material more or less directly from others without attribution.
(The moral requirement to cite ...
- 114k
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Did the Romans make bilingual puns?
I know that the Romans appreciated wordplay. But there's a rare and specific type of pun that I'm curious about now: a pun based on words sounding similar between languages.
For example:
Have you ...
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What are classical examples where prepositional ad phrase is inside ad purpose clause
This question is triggered by another question about wheatear the "ad" is prepositional or purpose.
In theory, we should see examples where something like this happens:
Discipuli Marcum ad ...
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Do we have evidence of clipped words in Latin?
In English, it's common for words to be clipped down to their first couple syllables: "brother" becomes "bro", "university" becomes "uni", "doctor" becomes "doc", "veteran" becomes "vet", and so on. ...
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When were /k/ and /q/ first distinguished in the Greek or Latin alphabet?
Nowadays, in languages which make a distinction between velar and uvular stops, it's common to use K for the first and Q for the second. This is best-known nowadays from transcriptions of Arabic names,...
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How to you convert a Latin word, such as voluntas, into a name, specifically a surname?
I've been wondering how to properly convert Latin words into names to signify the importance of certain concepts to a person, and met conflicting information online. My default assumption would be to ...
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Politically (in)correct Latin
I am looking for an example of a pair of adjectives or nouns (broadly defined) in classical Latin which mean the same thing but one is considered rude and the other one polite.
I could list several ...
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What is the earliest Latin crossword puzzle?
I think it is safe to assume that there have been crossword puzzles in Latin, and I think I have seen some in textbooks as well.
But what was the earliest Latin crossword puzzle?
I do not mean word ...
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"Receive blow in the face with hand"
In Seneca's Moral Letters 78:
Athletae quantum plagarum ore, quantum toto corpore excipiunt!
to receive blow in the face is plagam ore excipere: that is an ablative without preposition which would ...
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Can "libella maris" be "sea level"?
I came across the expression libella maris in a scientific text from 19th century.
There are many ways to parse it in the context, and one option that occurred to me is that maybe it stands for "sea ...
- 114k
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Did Romulus and Remus have other names?
Throughout Classical times, Romans would often have several names: one person might be identified by praenomen, nomen gentilicum, cognomen, agnomen, signum, and patronymic, all together.
Were Roman ...
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What evidence is there for volēre over volere?
In this answer, fdb mentions the Classical verb volō, velle transforming into *voleō, volēre in Vulgar Latin. The main evidence for this is a form volendi in Augustine and reflexes like voglio, volere ...
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Example request: accusative neuter nouns in any classical prose text
Is anyone able to provide me with about five sentences from any Latin classical text (one or more), excluding poetry or plays, where a NEUTER noun (any) is unambiguously employed in the accusative as ...
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Deriving lactuca from lac
The word lactuca refers to lettuce, and Lactuca sativa is the scientific name.
Some of the plants in this genus seem to contain some kind of milky liquid which must be the reason for deriving the word ...
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Do any Greek words have stems ending in labiovelars?
I know that Ancient Greek lost its labiovelar consonants at some point before alphabetic writing caught on. We know of the labiovelars' previous existence mostly because of different reflexes in ...
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Ab Nobis - to leave us
A quick search can barely confirm that ablative plural ab nobis is found in collocation. This might literally translate German von uns, as in the euphemism
von uns gegangen sein
* from us ygone be
...
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