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Why do so many names end with -us?
This is probably a simple question, but why do so many ancient Roman names (both first and last) end in "-us"? For example: Marcus Aurelius, Josephus Flavius, Julius, Maximus, Hadrianus, Titus, Jesus, etc. What does this suffix mean, and why was it…
Lo ani
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Is fessus a participle?
The adjective fessus (wearied, tired, fatigued, worn out, weak, feeble, infirm) sounds and looks like it could well be a participle.
If there is a verb, I would assume it to mean something in the direction of "to weaken" or "to burden".
Is there…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Did the Romans confuse a long vowel with two short ones?
Consider the words sūs and sŭŭs.
The former has one long u, the latter has two short ones in two syllables.
For another similar pair with a different vowel, consider īmus and ĭĭmus.
I wonder how easy it was for the Romans to confuse…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Did Latin have the same gender labels that the Romance languages have?
I'm curious about the concept and origin of gendered nouns. In a modern romance language such as Spanish, nouns are masculine or feminine which I'll describe as anthropomorphic labels. From my schoolboy Latin, I recall the declensions but not gender…
pinoyyid
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13
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Remnants of the dual number
To my understanding, Latin doesn't have a dual number at all. The adjectives duo "two" and ambō "both" have some special forms derived from the PIE dual (-ō, -ābus, -ōbus), but are considered irregular rather than part of any real pattern.
However,…
Draconis
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Where do the plurals of locus come from?
The word locus is masculine in the singular, but it can be masculine or neuter in the plural.
Geographical places are loca, but places in a text are loci.
As far as I know, this is the only Latin word with such behaviour.
Do we know where this…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Why would avoiding olive oil be a negative thing?
In Horace's Odes 1.8, Horace criticizes his ex's new boyfriend by saying, among other things, that:
...olivum sanguine viperino cautius vitat...
which, roughly, means
He avoids olive oil more cautiously than the blood [venom] of a serpent
I'm…
anon
13
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Meaning of "Noe" in Medieval Latin carols
Many Medieval Latin hymns, such as "Noe, Noe, psallite" by Jean Mouton (1459-1522), use the word "Noe" in the context of Christmas.
My first thought was that it is related to "Noel," used in many English carols like "The First Noel." Etymonline…
brianpck
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13
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Imperatives of derivatives of facere, dicere and ducere
Three verbs are well known to have an irregular short imperative: fac, dic, duc.
Do the imperatives remain short in the presence of a prefix?
For example, which ones are correct out of effic/effac/effice, interdic/interdice, adduc/adduce?
My…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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13
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-eris, -oris, -uris?
Much to students' annoyance, nouns ending in -us can belong to either the second (servus), third (tempus), or fourth (circus) declensions. I understand the origin of the second and fourth: Proto-Indo-European stems in -o- vs -u-. But the…
Draconis
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13
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Breakfast, lunch, dinner?
How to translate 'breakfast', 'lunch', and 'dinner' into Latin?
I gather cena is an adequate translation of 'dinner', but google translate produces many possibilities for 'breakfast' and 'lunch', and one of those possibilities, prandium, appears as…
davidrmcharles
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What did Ancient Greek plays look like?
(Note: I'm asking about text, not performance practice, which is well documented. Also this question is open to Ancient Roman plays, if the problems discussed below apply to them as well.)
The “translator's note” to Ian Johnston's
online translation…
texdr.aft
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13
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Is qsd an abbreviation for a Latin phrase?
This is a bit cheeky, but I'm trying to find out the meaning of what may be an 18th century abbreviation of a Latin phrase (for an answer to a question in EL&U.SE). Since I have no Latin, I've been fumbling around a bit.
The abbreviation is qsd…
Mick
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13
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Representing medieval latin abbreviation symbols in Unicode
I'm trying to understand a paragraph from the 1806 transcription of latin legal texts from 1331, while being proficient at neither law nor latin. An example:
which is from page 78 of Placita de quo Warranto.
I'll come back and ask for more help…
emrys57
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"All-forgiving" expressed with the omni- prefix
The English language has a handful of words starting with omni- to express all-:
omniscient all-knowing
omnipotent all-powerful
omnipresent present everywhere
How would one express all-forgiving using omni-?
(I am not sure which word to use for…
Andrew Woods
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