Questions tagged [verbs]
The verbs tag has no usage guidance.
5
votes
4answers
158 views
Could “essentia” be understood in Latin as “the act of being”?
Almost every verb has a noun that implies "the act and effect of" whatever the verb is. So, an existence is the act of existing. Nonetheless, the most simple verb, to be seems to lack such a noun, at ...
8
votes
1answer
197 views
aret = aridus est?
Is there any semantic or aspectual difference between aret and aridus est (cf. rubet/ruber est; calet/calidus est, candet/candidus est, i.a.)?
Ager aret. (Col. 2.8.5)
Ager aridus erat. (...
4
votes
2answers
97 views
How is the subject of the verb identified in this verse of the Vulgata?
In 2 Kings 4:4 we read:
Erat autem Jonathae filio Saul filius debilis pedibus : quinquennis enim fuit, quando venit nuntius de Saul et Jonatha ex Jezrahel. Tollens itaque eum nutrix sua, fugit : ...
6
votes
1answer
131 views
Is there a Latin 'studiare'?
The Latin verb for studying is studere, but a number of descendants look as if they came from studiare.
These include the Italian 'studiare', French 'étudier', and the Spanish 'estudiar'.
Was there ...
10
votes
1answer
526 views
Why “dilatasti” instead of “dilatavisti” in Psalm 4:2?
(Psalm 4:2) cum invocarem exaudivit me Deus iustitiae meae in tribulatione dilatasti mihi miserere mei et exaudi orationem meam
When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me: when I was ...
6
votes
2answers
212 views
The use of participle in “Ceres a generendo”
I'm trying to read this sentence, where Cicero finds Roman Gods in relevance to the Latin verbs:
Saturnus quia se saturat annis, Mavors quia magna vertit, Minerva quia minuit aut quia minatur, ...
5
votes
1answer
71 views
Where did the Latin language get its infinitive verb endings from?
Some time ago, a user in the Spanish language site asked if the Spanish verb endings -ar, -er and -ir had a special meaning. I then answered that the endings do not have any meaning by themselves, at ...
6
votes
1answer
32 views
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 ...
8
votes
2answers
105 views
What does the verb “luere” mean in the Angilberti carmina?
Angilbert is asking what the women (the sisters and daughters of Charles the Great) might think of the return of their nephew/brother Pepin from Italy in the poem AD PIPPINUM ITALIAE REGEM by ...
4
votes
1answer
50 views
Why is dignetur used as if it were in the active voice?
For 2 Thessalonians 1:11, the Vulgata has the following:
In quo etiam oramus semper pro vobis: ut dignetur vos vocatione sua
Deus nosteret impleat omnem voluntatem bonitatis, et opus fidei in
...
5
votes
1answer
59 views
What sort of Greek words are regularly distinguished only by tone?
In the postscript to this answer, Varro comments:
…the L&S entry for ἰχθυβολος shows two possible accents, a paroxytone ἰχθυβόλος for an active meaning, and a proparoxytone ἰχθύβολος for a ...
2
votes
1answer
33 views
future passive imperative of a verb + fuit (perfect active indicative of 'sum') =?
Just to give you some language background from my side, I have not learned the Latin language at all, and my mother tongue is neither English nor any other Indo-European language. I am reading ancient ...
10
votes
2answers
101 views
What is the difference between “novi” and “scio”?
Latin has at least two words that straightforwardly translate to English "know":
novi (perf. of nosco)
scio
Plautus combines the two pleonastically:
nec vos qui homines sitis novi nec scio
Here'...
12
votes
2answers
978 views
Do plural names referring to a singular thing require a plural verb?
Another question related to my geography of the Roman Empire which I am writing has arisen: during the time of Trajan, 117 AD, there were several provinces which had names in the plural, especially ...
4
votes
0answers
126 views
Did Latin have any ergative verbs?
An "ergative verb" is a verb that can either take two nouns (a subject and an object) or only one (a subject), where the object of the two-noun form corresponds to the subject of the one-noun form.
...
6
votes
1answer
184 views
What forms are the verbs in “Omnibus rebus paratis, Caesar milites naves conscendere jussit”?
In "Omnibus rebus paratis, Caesar milites naves conscendere jussit", what forms are the verbs "paratis" and "jussit", and why?
This sentence was taken from Gramática latina de Napoleão Mendes, from ...
6
votes
1answer
82 views
Ubī ūtar verbō “queō” prō “possum”?
The word queō ("I am able") is back-formed from nequeō ("I am not able") and, to the best of my knowledge, is equivalent in meaning to possum.
When would one use queō over possum, or vice versa?
5
votes
1answer
243 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
57 views
Is there something like an “anti-deponent” verb in Latin?
Deponent verbs are those who are written (normally) in passive form but are active in meaning. loquor, loquī, locūtus sum is a common example in Latin. I wonder if the opposite exists, i.e. a verb ...
5
votes
1answer
64 views
Where does quire come from?
Where does the verb quire come from?
L&S is unsure of the etymology but compares it to a Sanskrit word.
Do we know more about the etymology of the verb?
Is composed of ire ("to go") and another (...
8
votes
1answer
76 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 ...
7
votes
1answer
63 views
Why does the verb πολυπραγμονεῖν use the noun stem and not the verb stem? (Greek)
In Plato's Republic, Socrates sets forth the following idea, which he later refutes:
τὸ τὰ αὑτοῦ πράττειν καὶ μὴ πολυπραγμονεῖν δικαιοσύνη ἐστί,
justice is to do one's own business and not to ...
4
votes
0answers
55 views
Cur coniugationes systematis praesentis sunt tam dissimiles cum eae cum coniugationibus systematis perfecti comparentur?
TL;DR & the actual question
For those who don't need an explanation of all verb endings and the ways in which they differ from each other, my question follows below. For those who might need a ...
8
votes
1answer
76 views
Is the nominative gerund attested?
I'd always heard that the gerund had no nominative, with the present active infinitive taking the place of the missing form: volāre difficile est, rather than *volāndum.
However, in the comments on ...
6
votes
1answer
67 views
What was the most common and generic word used in classic Latin that meant “to speak” or “to talk”?
Nowadays in Spanish the verb used for "to speak" or "to talk" is hablar, which comes directly from Latin fābŭlor, meaning:
1 to talk familiarly, to chat, to converse
2 to invent a story, to make ...
5
votes
1answer
97 views
How to continue doing something?
There are many Latin verbs meaning roughly "continue", but I failed to find a description how to use any of them with another verb.
I would like to say things like "Keep walking!" and "She continues ...
10
votes
0answers
91 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/...
5
votes
2answers
67 views
Which verb do insects fly with?
Having read a question (and answer) about flies flying, I started to wonder whether flies would really fly with the verb volare.
I had always somehow imagined that volare referred to more elegant and ...
5
votes
5answers
503 views
Touching emotionally
In English or Finnish I can say that I was touched by something or an experience was touching, meaning that I was touched emotionally, not physically.
How can I express the same in Latin?
Does tangere ...
2
votes
0answers
25 views
Did meminisse ever had a present tense?
The verb meminī, meminisse, *mementus ever have any sort of (morphologically) present tense? If not, why not? If so, at what point was it lost in Latin?
Bonus points: if the present tense had ...
8
votes
0answers
75 views
Where did the passive infinitive come from?
The etymology of the present active infinitive seems well-documented. Proto-Italic had an infinitive-like suffix *-si, so *dōnā- + *-si = *dōnāsi > dōnāre by regular sound changes (s → z → r between ...
5
votes
1answer
53 views
Are there verbs in -o-?
Verbs conjugated in -a- (amō, amāre, amāvī, amātus), in -e- (habeō, habēre, habuī, habitus), and in -i- (audio, audīre, audīvī, auditus) are common and well-known. Verbs in -u- (acuō, acuere, acuī, ...
6
votes
1answer
92 views
Why is there a short ŭ in rŭtus?
In Cerberus's list of u-stem verbs, rŭō, rŭere, rŭī, rŭtus is the only one with a short ŭ in the participle stem.
Why is this? Does it go back to different types of verbs in PIE, as with stătus ...
5
votes
1answer
94 views
Do other verbs use different stems for their perfect passive and future active participles?
In his answer to another question, Cerberus remarked that many verbs with perfect participles in -ūtus had future active participles in -uitūrus. This struck me as odd, as I had been taught that those ...
7
votes
2answers
98 views
Are there other verbs in -uō?
Someone asked me recently about the conjugation of the obscene verb futuō, futuere, futuī, futūtus—and in particular about the quantity of the ū in the participle.
I intended to look at some other -...
8
votes
1answer
156 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 -...
3
votes
2answers
63 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
68 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 ...
5
votes
1answer
177 views
ἔερθαι: valid verb form? What verb?
This is l. 28 (the last line) of P.Sapph. Obbink:
I read it as:
ΝΘ̣€Ρ+ . . +Ι̣
where the uncertain theta could be an epsilon (Obbink reads €̣) and the pluses denote a blank spot in the papyrus, ...
2
votes
2answers
94 views
What does the prefix 'ab-' mean in the Latin verb 'abundare'?
abound (v.)
early 14c., from Old French abonder "to abound, be abundant, come together in great numbers" (12c.),
from Latin abundare "overflow, run over,"
from Latin ab- "off" (see ab-) + ...
4
votes
0answers
42 views
What combinations of tenses appear in periphrasis?
Periphrastic verb forms, specifically a participle plus an auxiliary verb, are very common in English ("I am writing now"). They also appear in Latin and Ancient Greek and a number of Romance ...
5
votes
1answer
54 views
How to translate “evaluate”?
In mathematics people say that
Evaluate f at x
What word in Latin means "evaluate"? The construction ex-valor-are -> evaloro, -are, -avi, -atum seems to be an analogue but I am not sure if this ...
1
vote
1answer
51 views
Revertere or reverti in transitive use?
If I want to use the verb revertere/reverti transitively (with an object different from the subject), should I choose active or passive forms?
Intuition suggests that active forms are preferred for ...
5
votes
1answer
40 views
How to “undelete” in Stack Exchange in Latin?
In the Stack Exchange network questions, answers, and comments can be undeleted.
What would be a good Latin verb for "undelete" in this context?
To "delete" is naturally delere, but I see no good way ...
4
votes
2answers
232 views
Is there a Latin verb for enabling?
This question is based on the same book "Wolmar Schildt — sata uudissanaa" my question yesterday.
The second of the two words that caught my attention was the Finnish verb "mahdollistaa", which was ...
2
votes
1answer
47 views
Is there a classical Latin verb for furnishing?
I recently read a booklet called "Wolmar Schildt — sata uudissanaa" which is built around a list of a hundred neologisms by Wolmar Schildt (1810–1893), one of the most active promoters of ...
7
votes
2answers
251 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 ...
4
votes
3answers
131 views
Different registers of urination
In English and Finnish (and probably most languages) there are different verbs for urination to be used under different circumstances:
clinical: urinate, mictuate; virtsata
childish: pee, wee; ...
7
votes
2answers
296 views
Why is “et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est” translated into past tense?
I'm a beginner and noticing "est" a present tense verb, being translated in dozens of resources as "was." Why?
et sine ipso factum est nihil quod factum est = and without him nothing was made that ...
4
votes
1answer
56 views
What is Latin for “relate”?
I mean that sense of relate which we find in:
A relates to B as C does to D.
or when we speak of A and B's relation, meaning whatever may be said of A and B without further specification.
If ...
