For questions about morphology.
5
votes
1answer
115 views
What’s the difference between meminisse and memini?
I’d love to get a tattoo saying ‘remember’ in Latin, but would rather not use memento. Would it be possible to either use meminisse or memini? I’d like remember to be like a reminder for myself to ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
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 ...
6
votes
0answers
37 views
Future: why -am instead of -em?
The future tense of third and fourth conjugation verbs is marked by -ē-, as in trahes and audies.
The regular personal endings are added after this vowel.
But in the first person singular the ...
10
votes
0answers
65 views
Third conjugation passive infinitive: why -i and not -eri?
The active infinitive is uniform (-re from -se by rhotacism) across the regular Latin conjugations, but the passive one is not: the third conjugation loses the consonant.
We have amare/amari, habere/...
4
votes
1answer
51 views
Does 'fiebam' contain the same root twice?
I learned from this question and its answers that the imperfect marker -ba- comes from the same PIE root as fui and fio.
What about the form fiebam (and other persons) then?
Does it contain the same ...
6
votes
2answers
413 views
What is the origin of the future suffix -b-?
I read in this answer that there may be a relation between the future endings -bo, -bis, etc. on the one hand and the verb fio "become" on the other. Is this true? If so, do we have any more details ...
3
votes
1answer
54 views
Where does the infinitive 'fieri' come from?
What is the origin of the infinitive fieri?
It is unusual in many respects.
The stem seems to be fi- and the infinitive ending -eri is only found in the second conjugation.
However, the second ...
8
votes
1answer
132 views
Active perfect stem conjugation and forms of esse
Many forms formed from the perfect stem (habitav-, fec-, tetig-, and others) resemble forms of esse.
It looks as if a form of esse was directly attached to the perfect stem.
In perfect conjunctive an -...
8
votes
2answers
180 views
Vowel length in future perfect indicative and perfect conjunctive
I want to compare future perfect active indicative and perfect active conjunctive.
They look identical, apart from first person singular (cogitavero ≠ cogitaverim).
But is there a difference in the ...
3
votes
2answers
58 views
Understanding 'percepset' instead of 'percepisset'
When looking at the L&S entry for percipio, I came across a surprising perfect form: percepset.
The contraction percepisset > percepset lookst similar to cogitavisset > cogitasset.
Are ...
5
votes
1answer
65 views
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 ...
2
votes
1answer
71 views
Why does Latin use declensions instead of just cases and gender?
What is the purpose of declensions? I know that 1st declension is female second is male and 3rd is neuter, but then why 4 and 5? What is the purpose of several declensions?
5
votes
1answer
92 views
Why do some pronoun nominatives look like vocatives?
The forms ipse, ille, and iste look like vocatives instead of nominatives, and one would expect to see ipsus, illus, and istus instead.
In fact, ipsus is attested but far rarer than ipse, but the ...
6
votes
0answers
82 views
How did “glutaeus/gluteus” come from Greek “gloutos”? Would “glutiaeus” be more correct?
In anatomy, the muscles of the buttocks are referred to collectively as the "glut(a)eal muscles" in English, and are individually given the following Latin names: glut(a)eus maximus, glut(a)eus medius ...
4
votes
2answers
168 views
Is visne > vin unique?
There is a contraction from the regular visne to vin.
Is the same contraction with -ne attested with other verbs in classical Latin?
I don't recall seeing questions like loquerin Latine or haben equum ...
3
votes
0answers
77 views
Plura or pluria?
Before answering this recent question about the US motto, I had to check whether the neuter version of plures is plura or pluria.
I had recalled right: plura appears to be indeed the sole form used in ...
7
votes
1answer
181 views
The length of the final vowel in first declension nouns (Greek)
How can you tell whether a first declension noun ends in a short or long vowel?
Background
When the word is written and accented, I may be able to tell. (Not always. E.g. θύρᾱ if without the macron)...
14
votes
1answer
152 views
What is the origin of the -a in words like “collega, advena”?
There are a couple of masculine (or common) nouns of the first declension. Some are from masculine Greek -ês, like poeta, nauta. But others, like collega, advena, parricida, scriba, incola, agricola, ...
7
votes
2answers
170 views
Regular passive forms of “facere”
Have regular passive forms of the verb facere ever been used?
If so, what is the first occurrence?
In all of the Latin I have seen, the passive forms of facere are replaced by fieri.
Regular passive ...
3
votes
0answers
54 views
Is there a neuter noun (word) that has different nominative and accusative form? [duplicate]
I thought neuter noun's accusative and nominative forms are always the same but is there any exception? I need any neuter word that has different nominative and accusative form. Doesn't matter if it's ...
5
votes
1answer
126 views
How do we end up with three vowels at the end of Περικλέους? (Greek)
According to Wiktionary, the genitive of Περικλῆς, or Περικλέης, is Περικλέους; and similarly, that of Σοφοκλῆς, or Σοφοκλέης, Σοφοκλέους.
Question: How do we end up with three vowels, εου, at the ...
3
votes
3answers
216 views
What is meant by “collateral” in dictionaries?
Lewis & Short often use the abbreviation collat., standing for collateral according to the appendix of abbreviations. An example:
ŭtĕrus, i, m. (collat. form ŭter, Caecil. ap. Non. 188, 15; ...
5
votes
2answers
114 views
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 ...
5
votes
2answers
70 views
How did the mixed-root “anticipātiō, anticipātiōnis” form?
I was considering the English word anticipation the other day, and wondered at how it ended up with a Greek prefix followed by a Latin root.1 After a quick search I found that the word derives from ...
3
votes
2answers
306 views
Why is the comparative adjective of “clarus” not “clariusis”?
The neuter genitive singular comparative of clarus is clarioris. Why is this? Shouldn't it be 'clariusis', since the form of neuter adjectives in the comparative form ends on -us?
9
votes
2answers
176 views
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 ...
4
votes
1answer
55 views
Quinquies and quinquiens
Consider the word quinquies/quinquiens ("five times").
It has two alternative spellings.
Having the options -ies and -iens seems to be common for numerals of this kind.
What is the origin of these ...
5
votes
2answers
259 views
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 ...
5
votes
2answers
78 views
Comparing decem and -decim
The Latin cardinal numbers starting at ten are decem, undecim, duodecim…
Does the -decim (roughly "-teen") come from decem or from the same root?
(I faintly recall decem and δέκα coming from ...
13
votes
2answers
345 views
Latin passive endings: Why is -mini sticking out
The Latin passive ending usually feature an additional letter R compared to the active endings: laud-or, -aris, -atur, -amur, -antur. However, the second person plural is different, using the ending -...
2
votes
0answers
69 views
Why ĭdem instead of iddem or īdem in neuter?
The pronoun idem/eadem/idem appears to be the combination of is/ea/id and -dem.
I can understand why isdem > īdem in the masculine, but why do we have iddem > ĭdem?
Shouldn't the vowel be ...
5
votes
1answer
60 views
The middle A of quadraginta
Consider these Latin cardinal numbers:
quadrAginta,
quinquAginta,
sexAginta,
nonAginta.
The -ginta seems to stand for tens (cf. triginta, octoginta) and the initial parts quadr-, quinqu-, sex-, and ...
10
votes
1answer
246 views
Why sequundus > secundus?
It seems quite clear that secundus comes from sequundus, a gerundive of sequi.
But why did -quu- become -cu-?
This change is not universal, since some Latin words do preserve -quu-, at least the end ...
9
votes
2answers
189 views
When is there a U instead of an E in gerund(ive)?
Tuomo Pekkanen's Latin grammar mentions (§52.3) that the -e- added to the present stem before -nd- in the gerund and gerundive (in the third and fourth conjugations) can be replaced with a -u-.
For ...
2
votes
0answers
47 views
When and how did the distinction between the gerund and the gerundive develop?
The gerund and the gerundive look similar and have similar meanings, but they are still distinct as any Latin grammar will tell us.
But how did classical Latin come to have these two close but ...
12
votes
1answer
150 views
Why is it “dare” and not “dāre” when most first conjugation verbs spell like “amāre”?
Why does dō conjugate differently from other first conjugation verbs in that you find a short a where otherwise you might expect a long ā?
BACKGROUND
Examples:
amāre (dare), amārī (darī), ...
20
votes
3answers
183 views
Did the Romans ever combine Greek and Latin morphemes?
Recently I was thinking about words in English which were formed from a Greek and Latin morpheme pair. An example of this is 'television', where 'tele-' is a Greek-originating prefix while 'vision' is ...
9
votes
1answer
93 views
How did the Latin past participle suffix -atus develop into modern French -é?
How did the Latin past participle suffix -atus develop into modern French -é?
Considering the two following examples: modern French état ("state; status") and été ("been"). Both derives ultimately ...
12
votes
2answers
206 views
Understanding the stem(s) of 'struere'
The present, perfect, and participle stems1 of the verb struere are stru-, strux-, and struct-.
The -s- in the perfect stem and the -t- in the participle stem are nothing unusual, but they seem to ...
10
votes
2answers
270 views
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 ...
8
votes
1answer
78 views
Do the locatives militiae, terrā, marī occur by themselves?
Textbooks tell us that the only common (in the sense of not proper) nouns that have a locative case are rūs "countryside" and domus "home". However, I'm familiar with two expressions that use ...
15
votes
3answers
733 views
Why do Latin nouns (like cena, -ae) include two forms?
So I recently learned the first declension nouns concept and my list of new vocabularies to learn suddenly changed.
Words were usually presented as:
sagitta
pecunia
etc.
Now, they indicate the ...
10
votes
1answer
139 views
Did the Romans borrow any inflection from other languages than Greek?
Some Greek loan words in Latin use Greek declension.
For example, I recall seeing Aeneida and Aeneidos instead of the regular Latin declension Aeneidem and Aeneidis.
Some elements of Greek inflection ...
14
votes
1answer
228 views
What is the optative?
Some conjunctive forms end in -im (and -is, -it, -imus, -itis, -int), but this is rare.
The examples I recall are sim, possim, velim, nolim, malim, and duim (alternative to dem).
These forms are ...
7
votes
2answers
274 views
Why does Ago become agit, agitis, agis, etc? [conjugate with an *i*?]
I am working on word endings in Latin, and I came across the word Ago.
And I was looking at the different conjugations for this word and it did not make sense to me.
Observe:
Endings are:
...
8
votes
3answers
289 views
What are the normal genitive and dative singular forms of “alius”?
Some sources mention a genitive singular alius, but I've also seen aliae. And I don't recall seeing a dative singular ali, but neither do I remember alio. I think several forms exist, including even ...
0
votes
0answers
28 views
How did 'ad' + 'hūc' compound to mean 'so far, thus far, hitherto, still'? [duplicate]
[ Adverb adhūc : ] Etymology
ad "to" + hūc "here"
so far, thus far, hitherto, still
[2.1] again; [2.2] furthermore; [2.3] moreover; [2.4] besides (used in scholastic debates to ...
5
votes
2answers
159 views
What is the plural of virus, vulgus and pelagus?
There are three neuters in the second declension ending in -us: virus, vulgus and pelagus.
(See this previous question for origin and listing of such words.)
My grammar tells me that these words are ...
13
votes
1answer
439 views
Are there any other neuter words of the second declension that end on -us than “virus”?
Virus is a neuter word of the second declension even though it ends on -us, as evidenced by its genitive on -i (it has no plural). Are there any other such words?
Bonus question: is it possible that ...
9
votes
1answer
183 views
Which islands appear in the locative?
Textbooks, when describing the use of the locative, often say it's used with the names of "cities and small islands" (as well as a few nouns like rus). What counts as a "small island"?
Wikipedia says ...
