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7 answers
What does "Vivos voco pedibus ioco" mean?
I am not familiar with Latin, but I found an engraving on a bench at the graveyard, that made me curious. It says,
vivos voco pedibus ioco.
Google Translate is not really helpful, as it translates this to "I call living feet joke". Does it mean…
walker18
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Third conjugation passive infinitive: why -i and not -eri?
The active infinitive is uniform (-re from -se by rhotacism) across the regular Latin conjugations, but the passive one is not: the third conjugation loses the consonant.
We have amare/amari, habere/haberi, audire/audiri, and trahere/trahi.
By…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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12
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How to say "please pray for me" in ecclesiastical latin?
I know that ora pro me means "pray for me", but how would I express my request politely, such as in the English equivalent "Please pray for me" ?
daveslab
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Where did the passive infinitive come from?
The etymology of the present active infinitive seems well-documented. Proto-Italic had an infinitive-like suffix *-si, so *dōnā- + *-si = *dōnāsi > dōnāre by regular sound changes (s → z → r between vowels, and all short vowels → e…
Draconis
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12
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1 answer
How can participles (inflected forms) be distinguished from deverbal adjectives (derived forms) in Latin?
Many modern linguistic analyses of languages like English draw a sharp theoretical distinction between participles, which are analyzed as inflected forms belonging to the paradigm of some verb, and deverbal adjectives (also called verbal adjectives,…
Asteroides
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12
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3 answers
Is the female accusative singular relative pronoun quem or quam?
This grid on Wiktionary gives quem for the singular feminine accusative of the relative pronoun quis.
According to books by Kennedy, Gwynne and Henry Cullen this should be quam.
Please can you tell me which is right?
Gail Foad
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What is the difference between Spiritus and Anima?
Both spiritus and anima seem to have the definition of soul, but it is mentioned on numerous sites that they are different from one another. What is the difference?
slsl3079
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12
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3 answers
What do "hic" and "ille" refer to in this passage from Ovid's Tristia?
In Ovid's Tristia, 1.2.23–4:
...Nihil est, nisi pontus et aer,
Nubibus hic tumidus, fluctibus ille minax...
As far as I can tell, this means
...There is nothing, unless the sea and air
This one swollen with clouds and that one threatening…
anon
12
votes
2 answers
Is there an exclusive word for octopus in Ancient Greek?
I was having the great "octopuses vs. octopi" debate with a scientist friend the other day, and decided to check the lexicon.
The only entry I could find relates the word to measurement, either of length or area, and the only available instance…
DukeZhou
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"Et in terra pax hominibus bona voluntas" [sic!]
I have a German Christmas song of the 16th century, which is bilingual, German–Latin. The lyrics go as follows (I translated the German parts into English):
O how beautiful the group of angels is singing, praising God for today and forever and…
Jonathan Scholbach
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Etymology and pronunciation of words ending in “-iasis”
Unfortunately, I don’t own any Latin or Greek dictionaries or etymological texts, but I tried to research this topic on the internet.
Here is what I found:
Perseus: words ending in “iasis” in L&S mostly have short -ăsis
Long ā:
ănăthȳmĭāsis
Short…
Asteroides
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12
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1 answer
Why is it "dare" and not "dāre" when most first conjugation verbs spell like "amāre"?
Why does dō conjugate differently from other first conjugation verbs in that you find a short a where otherwise you might expect a long ā?
BACKGROUND
Examples:
amāre (dare), amārī (darī), amātūrus (datūrus), amāns (dans), amātus (datus), amābit…
Catomic
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Does Latin have a mechanism to disambiguate possessive pronouns of the same gender referring to distinct persons?
Question: does Latin have a grammatical mechanism to disambiguate the ambiguous use of `his' in the third of the three following English sentences?
Person A wrote a book.
Then person B wrote a book.
Then person A wrote a book review of B's…
guest
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What is the origin of the "veneration" meaning of dulia?
The word dulia comes from the Greek doulia (meaning "slavery" or "servitude"). But in Catholicism, the word has taken on a theological meaning, as described in the Catholic Encyclopedia, "signifying the honour paid to the saints."
I see the…
Nathaniel is protesting
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Latin words for various types of diets (carnivore, vegetarian, vegan, etc.)?
Does Latin have words for the various types of diets, e.g., "vegetarian," "vegan," etc.?
St. Thomas Aquinas, seemingly referring to what we today would call a "vegan," says (Summa Theologica II-II q. 147 a. 8 arg. 1):
abstinentia a carnibus et ovis…
Geremia
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