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"Initium doctrinae sit consideratio nominis"
I'm looking for a Latin phrase for starting your exposition by explaining the terms, i.e. its title. I believe the quote is "initium doctrinae sit consideratio nominis," but I'm not sure that that's correct. I haven't been able to find it online, so…
GJC
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"Purissimum penem" in Suetonius's Life of Horace
Suetonius, in his Vita Horati, reports that the emperor Augustus jokingly referred to Horace as a purissimus penis:
Praeterea saepe eum inter alios iocos purissimum penem et homuncionem lepidissimum appellat, unaque et altera liberalitate…
TKR
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What's the the Latin word for a government minister / secretary?
According to Wikipedia, the definition of a government minister is:
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other…
Nathaniel is protesting
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How to answer a question?
Respondere looks like a good verb for answering, but how can I say "to answer a question"?
I failed to find an answer by looking at dictionaries.
These options come to mind:
quaestionem respondere
in quaestionem respondere
ad quaestionem…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Ave Verum Corpus: why ablative?
Ave Verum Corpus ("Hail, true Body!") is a short Latin poem that was set to music by Mozart. For most of it, the language is quite plain and straightforward.
However, there's a bit in the middle where I can't understand the cases used.
cujus latus…
Draconis
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When can "qui" mean "how"?
From brianpck's comment on another answer:
"qui" quite often means "how" in Plautus
This took me by surprise, since I'd never seen that use before.
In what contexts can quī mean "how"? And where does this usage come from? (That is, does it come…
Draconis
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Does animal include human?
In today's English the word "animal" can include or exclude humans, depending on context.
How about the word animal in classical Latin?
Does it include humans?
If not, is there a term that would cover human and other animals?
If animal means…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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2 answers
Dropping "to be" and other verbs in Latin?
Some languages, like Indonesian, can drop the verb to be when the meaning is obvious.
They are zero-copula languages.
I heard that some Latin authors wrote some sentences with this feature.
Do you have some characteristic examples and could you…
Quidam
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How to emphasize adjectives?
In English, and most modern European languages, we have one single word, "very," which is accepted as the regular way to make an adjective more extreme.
Is there a common way to do this in Latin?
Ways I can think of are just using the superlative,…
Dan
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Can a "dative of agent" appear in an Ablative Absolute construction (and, more generally, in a non-verbal context)?
I was wondering to what extent the syntactic distribution of so-called “datives of agent” and that of “ablatives of agent” is different. For example, besides appearing in verbal contexts (e.g., Proelium ab equitibus commissum est), ablatives of…
Mitomino
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In Ancient Greek, why ἑπτά vs. ἕβδομος?
I was marveling today at the word hebdomadal, from the Greek ἑπτά for seven. But that had me wondering why words derived from seven sometimes use /bd/ and other times /pt/. I notice, for instance, that the word for seventh is ἕβδομος. (The same…
Nick
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Translate "Everything burns" into classical Latin
In a project of mine I have an event which was named "everything burns", or potentially "Everything burned" (I am open to both tenses). What would this be in classical Latin? I tentatively have this as either Omnia Urit or Omnia Exurit.
Adam
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Is it gibberish, a real ceremony, or a Latin joke?
I have just been watching an old TV series called Porterhouse Blue which is a Tom Sharpe comedy about an ultra-conservative and old fashioned university called Porterhouse. At one point there is a ceremony when the new college master arrives for the…
Slarty
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"Memento rerum conditor..."
I am still working through the Parvum Officium and I am having a little trouble parsing the first verse of this hymn. I am pretty confident you people can straighten me out. The verse:
Memento rerum conditor,
Nostri quod olim corporis
Sacrata ab…
davidrmcharles
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Why "per capita"?
I don't speak Latin and I can't think of a non-dumb way to ask this.
But my understanding is that capita is the plural form of caput.
So I'm wondering how "per capita" makes any sense, then, as it means "per head", not "per heads". Seems like a…
ЯegDwight
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