Most Popular
1500 questions
11
votes
1 answer
Did the Romans pronounce ph like the letter f or the letter p?
I'm wondering – how would the Romans have pronounced ph if these letters were together in a word like "triumphantes"? Would it be pronounced like the letter f or the letter p? Did the Romans even ever put ph together in a word?
Landon
- 111
- 1
- 3
11
votes
1 answer
Name of Homeric (?) figure of speech: semantic transposition
I'm afraid my question is somewhat vague, and I'll try to improve it as I find the time to research it more.
I've been having a nagging memory of my Ancient Greek and Latin classes (and in that memory this was related to Homer), where we analysed a…
Jérémie Wenger
- 113
- 4
11
votes
3 answers
For the sake of the plot
In my Sanskrit dictionary, the Latin phrase metri causa ("for the sake of the metre") is used to alert the reader to forms which may be used irregularly in order to fit the metre. For example, in the available literature, a verb might occasionally…
Au101
- 323
- 1
- 11
11
votes
2 answers
Active verbs with passive meanings
Every beginning Latin-learner is familiar with the idea of deponent verbs: verbs that have passive forms but active meanings.
I am curious about a small subset of Latin verbs that aren't just intransitive, but have unmistakably passive meanings. I…
brianpck
- 40,688
- 5
- 94
- 204
11
votes
2 answers
Does Latin have any words for specific numbers apart from the numbers themselves (akin to the English "dozen", for example)
In English, many numbers have specific words that denote them, distinct from the number itself. For example "dozen" means group of 12; "gross" means 144; and "score" means 20. Similarly, I understand that French has the word "seizaine" meaning a…
codingatty
- 213
- 1
- 4
11
votes
1 answer
Female Names and Heritable *Cognomina*
Suppose I want to speak of the daughter of a man with a heritable cognomen. Let us take Marcus Tullius Cicero as an example. If I want to clarify that the Tullia I am speaking of is his daughter (or at least, a woman of his more immediate agnatic…
C Monsour
- 1,646
- 1
- 6
- 13
11
votes
2 answers
Distinguishing house from home
The common word domus can mean both "house" and "home".
How can I make a distinction between a house and a home in Latin?
For example, I might buy a house but it doesn't feel like a home yet, or I might have a home despite having no house or…
Joonas Ilmavirta
- 113,294
- 21
- 192
- 587
11
votes
1 answer
Why is *salāta feminine? What was the original noun it is modifying?
OED traces the "salad" family of words (Portuguese salada, Fra. salate, Spa. ensalada, Ita. insalata etc.) to spoken Latin *salāta, from the verb salāre.
One notices that salāta as well as all its descendants are feminine. My question is, what is…
melissa_boiko
- 211
- 1
- 6
11
votes
1 answer
What evidence is there for the classical pronunciation of zeta?
As I learned it back in introductory Greek, there's significant debate in the classics community about whether Classical Greek Ζ was pronounced /dz/, /zd/, /zz/, or something else.
What evidence is there to favor one over another?
Draconis
- 66,625
- 6
- 117
- 269
11
votes
1 answer
Scope of negation with absolute constructions
In Latin and Greek, when a negator appears in an absolute construction (ablative absolute, genitive absolute), it is generally taken to negate the predicate within that construction:
hostibus impetum facientibus "the enemy attacking"
hostibus non…
TKR
- 31,292
- 2
- 66
- 120
11
votes
2 answers
What does “non oportet” mean?
When verbs that recommend an action to some degree (such as should, must, ought) are negated, there are two possible interpretations: (a) the action is simply not recommended, nor anything else; or (b) it is recommended to desist from the action. In…
Sebastian Koppehel
- 34,011
- 2
- 58
- 110
11
votes
2 answers
Same ending of "Mediolanensis" in "Archiepiscopus Mediolanensis" and "Archidioecesis Mediolanensis"
Why is the ending of Mediolanensis in Archiepiscopus Mediolanensis and Archidioecesis Mediolanensis the same even though the former noun is masculine and the latter feminine?
PatVen
- 259
- 1
- 6
11
votes
1 answer
Term for the water/wine ratio chooser?
What's the Latin word for the person at cena who decided whether more or less water was added to the wine to keep the party going steadily?
DaftDeath
- 121
- 5
11
votes
1 answer
Can a verbum deponens go along with an accusativus?
In Plinius I encountered:
"Confitentes iterum ac tertio interrogavi supplicium minatus"
Is supplicium some sort of accusativus belonging to minatus, which comes from deponens minor?
If a form is passive then I would expect that the "accused" has…
drhab
- 213
- 1
- 7
11
votes
2 answers
Present participles of the verb esse
Inspired by the answers to this question, I want to ask about the different present participles of esse over time and their fate. I am aware that esse is a defective verb that classically does not have a present participle. But there are frozen…
Sir Cornflakes
- 2,307
- 1
- 14
- 36