14
votes
Accepted
Why "dilatasti" instead of "dilatavisti" in Psalm 4:2?
This is a contracted perfect form, which is fairly common in poetry, particularly in the first conjugation.
Basically, whenever you have a second person perfect active ending in -āvisti (like ...
- 69.3k
9
votes
Accepted
Does the perfect "faxit" have an optative sense?
It's actually not indicative, but subjunctive. I know Perseus' morph tool parses it as both indicative and subjunctive, but both Gildersleeve and the OLD say it's subjunctive and do not mention ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
9
votes
Accepted
How did the contracted perfect passive work?
"Latest" here is a contraction of "late est", with late an adverb, as you suggested: "...lātē est altēque videndum". There is no perfect passive involved here.
The same ...
- 30.1k
8
votes
Accepted
Perfect tense used to convey a planned action in the future
This comes down to what's often called the "epistolary tenses." Epistles tend to behave differently from other prose, probably due to the fact that the writer is conceiving of the time at ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Is the U long or short in the forms ussi and ustus of the verb ūro?
The double ss is evidence for a short vowel in ussi (at least at some point)
Just a short time after posting this question, I remembered a relevant fact. Even though there wasn't (as far as I know) a ...
- 30.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Why are "esurivi" and "sitivi" used in perfect, but "hospes eram" in imperfect in the same context?
In the Greek original of Mt 25, 35-36:
ἐπείνασα γάρ, καὶ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν, ἐδίψησα, καὶ ἐποτίσατέ με, ξένος ἤμην, καὶ συνηγάγετέ με,
γυμνός, καὶ περιεβάλετέ με, ἠσθένησα, καὶ ἐπεσκέψασθέ με, ἐν ...
- 18k
7
votes
Does the perfect "faxit" have an optative sense?
faxim is (according to one theory) the subjunctive (historically: optative) of the old s-aorist; note that Old Latin also had an s-future faxō. There is a rather convoluted discussion of this in ...
- 18k
6
votes
Why are "esurivi" and "sitivi" used in perfect, but "hospes eram" in imperfect in the same context?
Just to complement fdb's answer, the tense selection does not make the text grammatically wrong, but adds a nuance if read as it is written.
The imperfect is not necessarily ongoing now, but was ...
- 11.6k
6
votes
Accepted
Do any Latin verbs use a temporal augment?
First, it's not at all clear that Proto-Indo-European used the augment (temporal or syllabic): it's found in Greek, Indo-Iranian, Armenian, and Phrygian, but not in the other languages, so most likely ...
- 31.5k
6
votes
The lexical root of the perfect tense forms differs from the lexical root of the infinitive form
In general, this is called suppletion: when some forms of a verb are stolen from a totally different verb. For example, English to go has no past-tense forms; the past tense is taken from the ...
- 69.3k
6
votes
Accepted
Is it better to memorize verb's 1st person perfect tense?
Unfortunately you do need to memorize the perfect stem for each verb you learn.
Many verbs are similar, and it helps a lot that many first conjugation verbs have the -v- in perfect forms.
But not all ...
- 116k
6
votes
Accepted
What verb forms εἴσηκται as 3 s pf m/p?
According to Perseus's morphology tool, this form comes from the compound εἰσ-άγω, "to lead into".
- 69.3k
6
votes
Accepted
Deponent verb participle gender
It is the second option with arbitrata.
For the purposes of agreement, you can think of the participle as an adjective, so that Syra arbitrata est and Syra Romana est have exactly the same form.
The ...
- 116k
6
votes
Accepted
Is "Noli illud dixisse!" good Latin for "You should not have said that!"?
Woodcock in Paragraph 112 uses the imperfect subjunctive to express these meanings. Tu ne faceres tale, "you should not have behaved so", quoting Plautus. [Argentum] non redderes, "you ...
- 5,410
6
votes
Accepted
Questions for Regulus
I'll address each question in order:
Translation of "pencil"
Regarding the translation of "pencil" (French: "crayon"), the word is graphis, -idis, which is a Latinization ...
- 42.9k
5
votes
Understanding the use of "regnavit"
This is really an issue with Hebrew. The Hebrew "tenses" do not map into Greek/Latin/English tenses in a straight-forward manner, and their uses even seem to vary depending on whether they're being ...
- 4,713
5
votes
Accepted
When did unsyncopated forms become archaic?
Manu Leumann's Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre (Munich 1977) groups the contraction of -āvis- to -ās- in forms like amāstī and amāssem together with the contraction of -āver- to -ār- in forms like ...
- 30.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Is the third person passive perfect of a verb a source of nouns, e.g. "benedictus" from "bendico"?
They come from the same source, in this case.
The noun benedictus is a substantive: that is, an adjective on its own, acting as a noun. This is very common in Latin, and also shows up sometimes in ...
- 69.3k
5
votes
Latin usage & perfect passive finite verb forms
Yes, it does happen.
The esse and the perfect participle need not be anywhere near each other.
For example, Cicero (in Verrem 2.1.16) writes:
In Siciliam sum inquirendi causa profectus.
The verb ...
- 116k
5
votes
Accepted
Is there an aoristic-perfective distinction in the Latin perfect?
There is, in fact!
As you mention, the Latin "perfect tense" is a combination of the present perfective and past aoristic tense-aspect combinations, which remained separate in Greek (the &...
- 69.3k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between present and perfect conjunctive in hesitation?
Pinkster in the Oxford Latin Syntax (pp. 492ff.) discusses this question, but finds no clear answer. He considers three explanations: (a) there is a difference in meaning, specifically a difference of ...
- 31.5k
5
votes
Why not future perfect in Jerome's Epistola 22?
Both habuerō and lēgerō (not legerō, as there is no such form) are future perfect forms.
A very literal translation of the end of the quote would be:
Sī unquam habuerō codicēs saeculārēs, sī lēgerō, ...
- 116k
5
votes
Does suffero have perfect forms?
The form sustuli appears under the entries for both tollo and suffero in Lewis and Short. However, sustinuit is a form of sustineo, and not of suffero (contrary to what the link you provided says). ...
- 11k
5
votes
Accepted
Is the perfect passive always formed like so: verb + sum/es/est?
The combination of a verb's past participle passive with a tense of the verb, "to be" = "esse". Therefore, "amatus est" = (literally) "he is" (est) "having ...
- 9,406
5
votes
Accepted
What does "vestem scindebat" mean?
The whole sentence is not particularly long and goes like this:
Ariadna igitur in litus descendit atque huc et illuc currens multis cum lacrimis capillum et vestem scindebat, ut homines qui maerent ...
- 36.1k
5
votes
Questions for Regulus
[1] For graphida, you would have had to recognize the classic 3rd declension ending -is, -idis, which is common among words of Greek origin. That makes the word in question graphis, which can mean a ...
cmw♦
- 58.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Contracted perfect and historical infinitive
After talking to another classicist, I can offer some thoughts, though sadly without definitive sources.
It seems unlikely that the two are related, for various reasons:
Contracted perfects are ...
- 69.3k
4
votes
What is the origin of the active perfect indicative personal endings?
I've read the following etymologies
-ī> Directly from the first person perfective ending *-h₂e of PIE. (from Origins of the Greek Verb by Andreas Willi, Pg 8). He states the PIE *-h₂e became -ai in ...
- 41
4
votes
Accepted
Understanding 'percepset' instead of 'percepisset'
I believe they are very rare, but it is possible to find some others. I have found vixet in the Aeneid:
[Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneis 11.118]
apparat, his mecum decuit concurrere telis:
...
- 20.3k
4
votes
Do any Latin verbs use a temporal augment?
This is essentially a partial answer, but you're asking two questions so maybe someone else can provide the other half. I can only reply to your first question:
It seems to be exceedingly rare, if it ...
- 1,470
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible