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6 answers
What does memento mori actually mean?
I'm wondering what memento mori actually means. From Wikipedia, I see the meaning is "you must die" but that makes it sound like a threat. Legend said that one of the war prisoner use the word for mocking the Caesar.
Is there any better translation…
geomars
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Prepositions/adpositions with genitive?
In Latin, there are prepositions that may be followed by a noun in accusative (like ad), ablative (cum) or both (in).
I once thought ope was a preposition to be used with genitive, which I found pretty interesting because most Latin grammars do not…
Rafael
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When and how was "bombax!" used?
I found the exclamation bombax! in Plautus' Pseudolus (Pl. Ps. 1.3.131), where note 19 specifies it is a Greek loanword (βομβάξ in fact) used as an interjection of contempt. This agrees with what is stated in this 18th century edition.
However, here…
Vincenzo Oliva
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13
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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 those which bordered or resided on the Alps, to…
Ethan Bierlein
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Speaking about an inflected word in Latin
In English, it is fairly common to write/say such sentences as the following:
What is the possessive case of she?
Should I use who or whom after man?
What is the past participle of run?
These kinds of questions quickly get thorny when I attempt to…
brianpck
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13
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1 answer
What do you call your aunt or uncle's spouse?
In Latin, a paternal aunt is an 'amita', a paternal uncle is a 'patruus', a maternal aunt is a 'matertera' and a maternal uncle is an 'avunculus'. However, what do you call each of these people's spouses?
For instance, your 'consobrinus' and…
Marius Vivanconus Speluncus
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13
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When and where was the non-deponent form of verb "miror" used?
I've heard that deponent verb "miror" also had a non-deponent form. As far as I know it was in medieval Latin. So is it true? When exactly was the verb "mirare" used? Was it used everywhere, or was it a regionalism? And how did the meaning differ…
Pavel V.
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13
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Why was Z used in digraphs?
According to this other question, Late Latin used various digraphs with the letter Z in them, for sounds which might have been /ts/, /dz/, and /z/. If the letter Z was used for /z/ at the time, the latter two make sense.
But why use Z when writing…
Draconis
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Tastes Like Chicken
What Latin I know I've sort-of assimilated from being fluent in Spanish and having some knowledge of French, as well as a life-long interest in English etymology (not a strong foundation for Latin, I know :-)
I'm trying to come up with a succinct…
Jim Garrison
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2 answers
How to speak a language with a third declension adjective?
Most Latin adjectives related to names of countries and languages are of first and second declension: Latinus, Graecus, Anglicus…
If I want to express that I speak in any such language, I will simply use the derived adverb: Latine/Graece/Anglice…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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13
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What is the proper parsing of "macte virtute"?
As indicated in another answer, macte virtute is a common way of saying, "Well done."
The consensus seems to be that macte is the vocative of mactus. L&S states (contradictorily?):
(only in the voc. macte, and rarely in the nom.)
If this is the…
brianpck
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13
votes
4 answers
Comparison of participles
Participles behave much like adjectives.
Do they also have comparative and superlative forms?
They are easy enough to form: ferentior, dicturissimus.
More precisely, are any comparatives or superlatives of participles attested in classical Latin…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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13
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1 answer
Old vs Classical latins
In my research I found something about an old latin and that that is where the locative case comes from. So I clicked on the old latin page, and surprise, it's just an older version of latin. So is there a major difference between Old Latin and…
tox123
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How does the Latin of these two translations of The Little Prince compare?
There are two translations of The Little Prince into Latin, one by Auguste Haury and one by Franz Schlosser. I'm trying to get a sense of the relative merits of their Latin.
Here's the dedication of The Little Prince in English:
TO LEON WERTH
I…
Joel Derfner
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13
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Church Latin: when did the orthography change occur?
Sometime around the middle of the 20th century the Latin orthography of official Roman Catholic liturgical books of the Roman Rite switched from "juxta", "Jesus", "Judaei" etc. to "iuxta", "Iesus", "Iudaei".
When exactly did this change happen and…
igneus
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