32
votes
Accepted
A Latin adjective for New York?
The Catholic Church seems to use (say, Archiepiscopus) Neo-Eboracensis very
consistently. See, for example: here for 'FRANCISCUS titulo Ss. Ioannis et Pauli Presbyter Cardinalis SPELLMAN, ...
- 420
17
votes
What did "actuālis" actually mean in Latin?
I'll try to answer my own question, if I may. After a bit of research I discovered that no more than 300 years ago the meaning of Spanish actual was actually the same as English actual, as seen by ...
- 2,239
17
votes
A Latin adjective for New York?
Just a few days ago I was looking up the scientific name of the Northern Waterthrush: the Parkesia noveboracensis.
The name occurs in several other names. However, I haven't found an example of it ...
- 42.9k
14
votes
Accepted
How To Say "-able" in Latin
As brianpck mentioned, the English suffix "-able" is borrowed from Latin. The rules for applying it in Latin are more transparent than the English alteration between "-able" and "-ible". EDIT: And are ...
- 69.3k
14
votes
Accepted
What is "old" in the age of a wine?
I have found three ways of referring to the age of wine, the first of which is the most common and simplest:
An adjective such as anniculus, bimus etc.
quadrimum Sabina, o Thaliarche, merum diota
...
- 8,741
14
votes
Accepted
Comparison of omnes, cuncti, and universi
Certainly there are differences between the three, which I hope the following will demonstrate with sufficient clarity.
The roots of universus indicate 'turned into one', which describes a group ...
- 18.2k
12
votes
Accepted
Meaning of *iuvenis*
Others pointed out the dictionary definition of iuvenis, but it would help to have a solid example. In Livy book 21.50, Ti. Sempronius met with Hiero at Syracuse.
statum deinde insulae et ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
12
votes
Accepted
Niveus and nivosus
In general, the -osus ending indicates plenty. Lacrimosa isn't just "teary-eyed," but weepy. Same with nivosa. Niveus is often used with mountains to describe the snow-topped peaks, and from the ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
11
votes
Accepted
Which adjective to use for tallness of people?
All three of those adjectives are used of persons in classical Latin, in both prose and poetry. (In my own reading, though, I'm accustomed to seeing altus and procerus much more often in this context ...
- 20.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Is fessus a participle?
Maybe.
There is a verb fatīscō, fatīscere, —, ???, meaning to fall apart or collapse. (Sometimes it also acts like a deponent verb, fatīscor, fatīscī, with the same meaning.) But it's practically ...
- 69.3k
11
votes
Accepted
Cibus sanus — healthy food?
I think you are right that sanus more correctly describes a healthy state, whereas saluber/salubris seems to be preferred to describe those things which bestow health. Some examples:
Climate:
ex ...
- 8,741
11
votes
Accepted
Why is it "Discipulus pulcher est" and not "Discipulus pulchrus est"?
There is no word pulchrus. The word in the masculine, nominative, singular is pulcher, and it is one of the 2nd declension noun and adjectives that end in -er.
There are many adjectives of this type, ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
11
votes
Is "necesse" an adjective or an adverb
Lewis & Short, Gaffiot, Georges and Forcellini agree that it is an adjective. Oxford appears to be alone with its opinion that it is an adverb, and I wonder if the entry itself has anything to say ...
- 36.1k
11
votes
Accepted
Why is there no case agreement between "magni" and "poetae"?
There is agreement, in fact! Both of these words are masculine genitive singular.
The trick is that poēta is a masculine noun, despite being in the first declension. So the genitive singular is -ae, ...
- 69.3k
10
votes
Accepted
Nominalized adjective in Latin?
Latin doesn't need any changes at all. Since there are no definite articles, there's no need for anything but using the adjective substantively. The only requirement is following normal grammar rules ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
10
votes
What did "actuālis" actually mean in Latin?
Per Lewis & Short:
actŭālis , e, adj. id.,
I. active, practical, Macr. Somn. Scip. 2, 17.—Adv.: ac-tŭālĭter , actively, Myth. Vatic. vol. 3, p. 181 ed. Bod.
So it wasn't particularly close ...
- 411
10
votes
Noun adjuncts in Latin
The typical choice in Latin is to derive an adjective from the noun.
I would translate "chicken soup" as ius gallinaceum.
Deriving adjectives is nontrivial but inevitable.
A genitive is a good second ...
- 116k
10
votes
Accepted
Origin of "lunatĭcus"
According to the Italian Wiktionary entry for the Italian word lunatico, lunaticus is actually a Late Latin expression and, in particular, a calque of the Greek σεληνιακός, seleniakos, and ...
- 4,538
10
votes
Is it grammatically correct to attributively use nominative forms of nouns in New Latin?
It's valid even in Classical Latin, in fact!
Generally, it's fine to put two nouns together in the nominative (or, rather, in the same case) when one of them gives the general category of a thing and ...
- 69.3k
9
votes
Accepted
What is the Nominative of 'uniuscuiusque'?
Yes, it's unusquisque. Both parts unus and quis are declined, always in the same case.
It is a compound pronoun meaning 'each single one'.
- 18.2k
9
votes
Meaning of *iuvenis*
From Lewis and Short:
Subst.: jŭvĕnis, is, comm., one who is in the flower of his or her age (mostly of persons older than adolescentes and younger than seniores, i.e. between twenty and forty ...
- 69.3k
9
votes
Accepted
Why νώ (rather than νῶ) from νόω? (Greek)
Philomen Probert (Wolfson College, Oxford) writes that
"[A] nominative/accusative dual ending in ω always has an acute, never a circumflex, if accented on the final syllable, regardless of ...
- 11.8k
9
votes
What did "actuālis" actually mean in Latin?
In philosophy and theology there is a core distinction between potentiality and actuality. This distinction is originally from Greek philosophy, but can also found in medieval Christian theology (e.g. ...
- 12.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Noun adjuncts in Latin
Latin doesn't really form noun phrases in the same way that English does, by stringing together a collection of modifying nouns before the original noun. To a Roman, the phrase pullus iūs would have ...
- 2,571
8
votes
Accepted
Can the gerundive be used like an adjective?
Certainly. Allen and Greenough sec. 500:
The gerundive is sometimes used, like the present and perfect participles, in simple agreement with a noun:—
fortem et cōnservandum virum (Mil. 104), a brave ...
- 31.5k
8
votes
What is "old" in the age of a wine?
There is a direct quote for this situation in the Satyricon, where Petronius just uses annus in the genitive plural:
Statim allatae sunt amphorae vitreae diligenter gypsatae, quarum in cervicibus ...
- 1,470
8
votes
What is the difference between niger and ater?
The adjective “ater” goes just in the direction of “dark” in the sense of "mournful" / “gloomy”, since the “dies atri” were considered unlucky days (See Macrobius, Saturnalia, book 1, chapter 16, ...
- 159
8
votes
Accepted
What is "soaking wet"?
The word you're looking for is madidus.
mădĭdus, a, um, adj. madeo,
I.moist, wet, soaked, drenched (rare until after the Aug. per.).
I. Lit.
A. In gen.: fasciculus epistolarum aquā madidus, * ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
8
votes
Accepted
SPQR: Why not Romani?
Take a look at this older question for gender and number of an adjective referring to several nouns.
There are two basic cases.
The adjective can be attributive or predicative.
If you want to say "The ...
- 116k
8
votes
Accepted
Could an adjective be used like an adverb in Latin?
There are three main ways to turn an adjective into an adverb in Latin. In decreasing order of popularity:
Use a special adverb-forming suffix: first/second adjectives get -ē, while third adjectives ...
- 69.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible