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Are there Roman accounts of Easter?
Now that it is Easter time, I wonder whether the Romans wrote about Easter.
I am looking for non-Christian accounts in Latin describing the events of Jesus's death and subsequent resurrection.
I assume that it would have been an interesting piece of…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Was η called "eta" or "heta"?
Nowadays, the letter Η/η is called "ita" by Greeks and "eta" by physicists. But I'm curious: if I went back in time and talked to Socrates, what name would he have used?
Background: historically, Η came from the Phoenician letter het (or heth),…
Draconis
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Was the old ablative pronoun "med" or "mēd"?
In Classical times, the first singular ablative pronoun ("from me") was mē, with a long ē. However, the older form seems to have been med, with a final -d.
Do we know whether this earlier form was med or mēd? In other words, was the vowel long or…
Draconis
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Translation of Scottish 16th century church stained glass
This piece of stained glass (about 500mm x 400mm) is in our house but came from our adjoining castle. I think it came from a since ruined church on the same site. Anyone know what it means?
Robbie Beaton
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Are there gender-neutral names in Latin?
Latin has some "epicene nouns", like canis "dog", which can be either masculine or feminine: a good dog could be either a canis bonus or a canis bona, depending on the dog in question.
Are there any epicene names? That is, are there any attested…
Draconis
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8
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Etymology of ambulance
For a while I have been curious about the etymology of the English word 'ambulance' since it seems to be derived from the Latin word 'ambulare' (to walk). This seems a strange origin for the word. People who require medical attention are generally…
Stumbler
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Exact meaning of aurora in canon law?
Aurora means dawn, that's well known. But there is more than one type of dawn. The English Wikipedia knows three types: astronomical (18°), nautical (12°) and civil dawn (sun 6° below the horizon). Latin Wikipedia knows - in the stub article Aurora…
K-HB
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"exoritur" in Ennius' dactylic hexameter
I'm stuck while reading Ennius' "Cūrantēs magnā cum cūrā", written in dactylic hexameters.
I added to the text some macrons and caesuras that are of my own. I scrupulously respected what little I knew about Ennius' latin, especially long vowels in…
suizokukan
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How to translate "Carpe That Diem" properly into Latin?
I was in a store today when I came across a notebook that said "Carpe That Diem" on the cover. How would one translate this phrase into Latin properly?
At first I thought to simply translate "that" with a Latin demonstrative pronoun, but then I…
nellapizza
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How accurate is the typical definition of a deponent verb?
Deponent verbs are often defined as verbs that have passive forms but active meanings. But how accurate is this typical definition/generalization? It seems clear that this definition applies without problems to deponent verbs like hortor or…
Mitomino
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8
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Were enclitics considered part of a word for stress purposes?
One rule of Latin stress is that it can never go farther back than the antepenult: the third syllable from the end. For example, we have cár-men "song", cár-mi-ne "with a song", and car-mí-ni-bus "with songs", but never *cár-mi-ni-bus.
When an…
Draconis
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8
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How to say "Don't even..."?
The following constructions feel simple enough:
"You don't even move." — Ne moveris quidem.
"Don't move!" — Noli moveri! or "Ne motus sis."
But what if I want to give a negative order with "even"?
That is, how to say "Don't even move!"?
The…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Can *ne* in *ne ... quidem* mean *ne* instead of *non*?
In all examples I have seen, the ne in ne … quidem could be replaced with non alone, leaving out the quidem (thus changing the meaning from "not even" to "not"), and still make a grammatically correct sentence but not with ne.
Are there examples in…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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votes
2 answers
What is this letter?
I came across this picture attached to a clickbaity article this morning:
A nice, normal-looking Greek alphabet…except for something that looks like S in between epsilon and zeta.
What is this letter? The only letter that I can think of for that…
Draconis
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Comparing 'ita' and 'sic'
Both ita and sic mean roughly "so" or "in such way".
I know they are not identical and I have a relatively good feeling of their respective meanings, but I couldn't quite put my finger on the difference.
Could someone summarize what the main…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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