16
votes
Gen. 1:20 is reptile ablative?
Jerome probably prefers to stick to the original Hebrew that uses the singulars both for "reptile"(*) and volatile which are grammatically adjectives but used here as substantives. ...
- 10.1k
15
votes
Translating "Nocte volat caelī mediō"
As an adjective, indeed, medius, -a, -um does not take a genitive. However, there is a noun, the substantive medium, -i, which also means "middle" or "midst." Referring to a ...
cmw♦
- 50.7k
14
votes
Is there a Latin word for 225th anniversary?
"Bicentennial" is not actually Latin; it's just English. It doesn't even come from a Latin word. In particular, bicentennial is an Americanism, and the more common word in England was (is ...
cmw♦
- 50.7k
13
votes
Accepted
Are "sex" and "sexus" etymologically related?
The gist of Au101's answer is confirmed by de Vaan's Etymological Dictionary. First, regarding sex, in Proto-Italic and Proto-Indo-European, he gives:
PIt. *seks 'six', *seks-to- 'sixth'
PIE *(s)...
- 11.2k
13
votes
Accepted
Concrete 4th and 5th declension nouns
Manus "hand" is of the fourth declension, though it is feminine.
Specus "cave" is normally masculine.
Lacus "lake".
Fructus can be a fruit, one that you pick from a tree.
...
- 19.8k
12
votes
Accepted
Verbing in Latin
There are at least some cases in which this can be done, with different shades of meaning.
graecisso (-izo), āre, v. n., = Γραικίζω, to imitate the Greeks, to adopt a Grecian manner or tone: atque ...
- 16.4k
12
votes
Was "oscŭlum" a cultured word in Latin?
Another partial answer.
Tl;dr: kissing had a social role in Judaism that was inherited into Christianity (as osculum in the Vulgate), where it even had/acquired a ceremonial role (not sure if this ...
- 10.8k
12
votes
Was "oscŭlum" a cultured word in Latin?
I cannot provide a complete answer either, but perhaps a few points one the subject of kissing, and the semantics of the words for it. I cannot, unfortunately, provide immediate literature references ...
11
votes
Are "sex" and "sexus" etymologically related?
No, I don't think so, and for this I can actually rely on etymonline which is a fine resource, even if linguistics students are discouraged from using it for their homework.
The entry for the English ...
- 323
11
votes
Accepted
Can infans refer to children who can speak?
In the Oxford Latin Dictionary (which only covers Classical Latin):
An infant, little child (strictly, one not yet able to talk).
The use of "strictly" in the parenthesis implies that even ...
- 1,011
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, ...
- 64.6k
11
votes
Gen. 1:20 is reptile ablative?
I understand the phrase producant aquae reptile animae viventis to mean something like "let the waters bring forth the creeping/crawling thing of living breath." In more idiomatic English, ...
- 2,630
11
votes
Why does canis have both masculine and feminine forms?
Most Latin animal names have both a male and a female form, to express the animal's gender; the masculine is used when the gender is unknown.
If the masculine form is second-declension (e.g. "...
- 335
10
votes
Accepted
-eris, -oris, -uris?
The usual explanation given in historical grammars, e.g. those of Weiss, Sihler, and Buck, is that the -er- stems result from regular sound change, while the -or- stems result from analogical ...
- 30.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Are "vir" and "virgo" etymologically related?
The etymology of 'virgo' proposed by Ledo-Lemos, and rejected by Vaan (without further explanations), does not explain Lat. virgo as a compound from "*uiH-ro- (man) and *gʷén-eH₂- (woman)", ...
- 116
10
votes
Are "vir" and "virgo" etymologically related?
Most likely not. According to de Vaan, there are two hypotheses on the etymology of virgo.
virgo, -inis 'girl of marriageable age; virgin' [f. (m.) ri\ (Andr.-l·)
Derivatives: virginalis 'of a ...
- 11.9k
10
votes
Was "oscŭlum" a cultured word in Latin?
Here's counter-evidence for you, from Ovid Amores (2,5).
inproba tum vero iungentes oscula vidi—
illa mihi lingua nexa fuisse liquet—
qualia non fratri tulerit germana severo,
sed tulerit ...
- 11.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Do plural names referring to a singular thing require a plural verb?
Plural place names should have plural verbs. A very simple case of this is Athenae, -arum (Athens). Here's an illuminating example from Cicero:
in quam cum intueor, maxime mihi occurrunt, Attice, ...
- 38.5k
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 ...
- 110k
10
votes
Accepted
Why did "cattus" replace Latin "feles"?
From the history of cats, it is clear that domesticated cats were introduced to the Romans from Egypt. Before that, the Romans had ferrets as mouse hunters. So the classical word feles refers to the ...
- 2,288
10
votes
Accepted
Latin suffixes in the noun "vertebra"?
There are two distinct words here:
The noun vertebra.
The adjective vertebralis, "related to vertebra".
The adjective is derived from the noun, and both the noun and the adjective have ...
- 110k
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 ...
- 64.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Is the dative plural of anima animis or animabus?
Both are correct, but there are limited use cases for -abus. The chief form used across all authors for all words ends in -is, as in anima, animis (fem. dat/abl. pl.).
The only two general exceptions ...
cmw♦
- 50.7k
10
votes
Accepted
Creating place names from Latin verbs?
Almost there, but the -t- belongs to the verb, not suffix. In particular, it's the fourth principle part (the supine/perfect participle) of the verb.
For the verb:
vomo, vomere, vomui, vomitus (or -...
cmw♦
- 50.7k
10
votes
Accepted
Is there a suffix that means "like", or "resembling"?
Despite verisimilis (which Lewis and Short note should be separated), I would instead recommend going the Greek route using -ειδής suffix. This means "in the shape or form of" and can be ...
cmw♦
- 50.7k
10
votes
Is "levor" a Latin word?
I'm not sure why it's not on Wiktionary, but you can find it in Lewis and Short, with various references to classical usage.
lēvor (laevor), ōris, m. id.,
I.smoothness: “haud sine principali aliquo ...
- 64.6k
9
votes
Accepted
Is 'Delphī' a second declension word?
It is indeed a second declension word. It is used in the plural. You can confirm this on the Lewis and Short dictionary:
Delphi , orum, m., Δελφοί,
I.the famous city of the oracle of Apollo in Phocis,...
- 11.9k
9
votes
Accepted
Why do some 2nd decl. "-er" adjectives and nouns drop the "e" in the stem?
This is well-known and virtually all good grammars discuss this (as vowel syncope).
Genetivus singularis helps us reconstruct the original nom.sg. form (synchronically), that's why we learn nouns in ...
- 11.6k
9
votes
Was "oscŭlum" a cultured word in Latin?
Smith's Copious & Critical English-Latin Dictionary (p. 430) in longish articles is good on this, giving suavium as the "most suitable word for ordinary use", osculor as "the term most suitable ...
- 18k
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 ...
- 11.6k
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