#diaphanus

Me promovere condiscipulos meos iuvat! Iasmina Linguas Latinam atque Graecam scit.

Segmenta diaphana | Fōns - Dominiī Pūblicī

diaphanus, diaphana, diaphanum -

Post by: Diaphanus

Approved by: Lana

Patronymics and metronymics are words that denote descent or relationship. They derive from masculine and feminine names, and are formed from these suffixes:

-adēs, -iadēs, -idēs, -īdēs, -iōn (when referring to males);

-ās, -ias, -is, -ēis, -īnē (when referring to females).

Most of these are Greek-derived.

Some examples of patronymics and metronymics are:

Atlantiadēs, “son of Atlas (i.e. Mercury),” from Atlās (Atlant-);

Tantalides, “male descendant of Tantalus (e.g. Pelops), from Tantalus (Tantalo-);

Caesariōn, “son of Caesar,” from Caesar (Caesar-);

Tantalis, “female descendant of Tantalus (e.g. Niobe);

Neptūnīnē, “female descendant of Neptune,” from Neptūnus (Neptūno-).

The use of some of these suffixes require explanation.

The suffixes -īdēs, -ēis are used because the Greek suffixes -ιδης, -ις, were added to Greek stems in -ευ, and the resulting -ει-, -ηι- combinations were Latinized as ī, ēi:

Atrīdēs (Ἀτρείδης), “son of Atreus,” from Atreus/Ἀτρεύς (Atreu-, Ἀτρευ-);

Cissēis (Κισσηίς), “daughter of Cisseus,” from Cisseus/Κισσεύς (Cisseu-, Κισσευ-).

-adēs and -ās tend to be used when an i appears immediately before them:

Thestiadēs, “male descendant of Thestius,” from Thestius (Thestio-);

Hēliās, “daughter of Helios,” from Hēlios (Hēlio-).

Sometimes the stem of the proper noun drops or adds a syllable before the suffix:

Scīpiadēs, “son of Scipio,” from Scīpiō (Scīpiōn-);

Lampetidēs (Λαμπετίδης), “son of Lampus,” from Lampus/Λάμπος (Lampo-, Λαμπο-).

The -idēs suffix is found in Plautine comic names. Apparently the idea is that those with these names come from families or groups of people that have traits denoted by such names:

Argentiexterebronidēs, “Mr. Money-Extorter,” from argentum, exterebrāre;

Nūgipalamloquidēs, “Mr. Talks-Nonsense-Openly,” from nūgae, palam, loquī.

The scientific Latin names of zoological families and botanical subclasses are now systematically formed with the termination -idae, the plural form of -idēs:

Hominidae, referring to the great apes, from homō (homin-);

Līliidae, the botanical subclass that includes the family Līliāceae, from līlium (līlio-).

I find it amazing and amusing how the ancient comedians and the modern scientists have not only appropriated this suffix but also used it in specific ways. Moreover, the contrast between the humorous and the serious is a very striking one!

Sources

Greek Grammar, Herbert Weir Smyth;

New Latin Grammar, Allen and Greenough;

Post by: Diaphanus

Approved by: Lana

In my last few posts on Latin grammar, I explained how to express in Latin several specific ideas that are normally expressed with various auxiliary verbs in English. I have already explained how to express possibility, permission, and necessity in Latin. In this post, I shall finish this series of posts by explaining how to express duty and obligation. Three constructions are available to us in conveying such ideas. Let us see what they are and how they work.

One construction comprises the personal verb dēbēre and the infinitive. This verb expresses duty as owed to others: “I am bound to,” “I am under an obligation to.”

Hōc facere dēbēs (dēbēbis). “You ought to do this.”

Hōc facere dēbuistī (dēbēbās). “You ought to have done this.”

A second construction involves the impersonal verb oportet with either the accusative and infinitive or the subjunctive. This verb expresses a duty as binding on oneself.

Hōc tē facere oportet (oportēbit). “You ought to do this.”

Hōc tē facere oportuit (oportēbat). “You ought to have done this.”

Hōc facerēs oportuit. “You should have done this.”

The third construction pertains to the gerundive, which can also express necessity. What I wrote in my previous grammar post about the gerundive expressing necessity also applies to expressing duty. I should also point out that the gerundive may be used either impersonally (neuter nominative) if the verb is intransitive, or used as a predicative adjective if the verb is transitive (which is often called the Passive Periphrastic).

Tibi currendum est. “You must run.” [Impersonal use with intransive verb]

Carthāgo delenda est. “Carthage must be destroyed.” [Passive Periphrastic]

Dē gustibus nōn est disputandum. “One should not raise a dispute in matters of taste.” [Impersonal use with intransive verb]

Of these three constructions, the one with the gerundive is the commonest. One plausible explanation for this is the gerundive construction’s versatility in expressing duty and necessity.

Source

Post by: Diaphanus

Approved by: Lana

A verb’s perfect participle arose when the suffix -tus (-a, -um) or -sus (-a, -um) interacted with that verb’s present stem or root:

amāre: amā- + -tus = amātus;

findere: FIND + -tus + fissus;

regere: REG + -tus = rēctus;

fīgere: FIG + -sus = fīxus;

fīnīre: fīnī- + -tus = fīnītus.

Thus we have participle forms that can be translated as “loved,” “cleaved,” “guided,” “fixed,” and “finished,” where the -tus/-sus/-xus is much like our English suffix “-ed.” But fīnītus can mean “bounded” or “limited” as in “provided with a boundary or limit.” This form looks as if the suffix -tus was just added to the stem of the noun fīnis, “limit,” to make “limited” much like how we ourselves added “-ed” to “limit.”

Interpretations of this kind contributed to the practice of adding the suffix -tus to nominal stems to form adjectives that mean “provided with” or “having” that which the original noun or adjective signifies. These adjectives can also be translated “[whatever]-ed.”

barbā- (barba, “beard”) + -tus = barbātus, “bearded,” “having a beard”;

turri- (turris, “tower”) + -tus = turrītus, “turreted”;

oner- (onus, “burden”) + -tus = onustus, “burdened”;

cornu- (cornū, “horn”) + -tus = cornūtus, “horned.”

From words of this kind arose the compound suffixes -ātus, -ītus, -ūtus:

manu- (manus, “hand”) + -ātus = manuātus, “furnished with hands”;

mell- (mel, “honey”) + -ītus = mellītus, “sweetened with honey”;

nāso- (nāsus, “nose”) + -ūtus = nāsūtus, “with a large nose.”

Adjectives ending in -ātus, -ītus, -ūtus imply reference to a real or imaginary verb: e.g. barbātus, implying a *barbō, *barbāre. The adjectives with only -tus do not make such a reference.

These suffixes can even form adjectives implying things that are worn. Thus, we have togātus, (literally) “wearing a toga,” and candidātus, (literally) “wearing white clothes.”

Not too long ago, I suggested the word roseātus, “dressed in pink,” from roseus, “pink.” It turned out that the word roseātus already existed!

Sources

Latin Suffixes, John Tahourdin White;

Post by: Diaphanus

Approved by: Beniaminus

The ideas of possibility, permission, duty, necessity, are expressed in English by auxiliary verbs, “can,” “may,” “ought,” “should,” “must,” etc. I have already explained ways to express possibility and permission in Latin. Now I plan to show how Latin handles the idea of necessity.

There are two general ways to express necessity in Latin. One way is the use of the gerundive, which implies both duty and necessity.

Tibi moriendum est (erit). “You must die (will have to die).”

Tibi moriendum fuit (erat). “You had to die.”

Nōbīs Carthāgo delenda est. “We must destroy Carthage.”

Cīvibus ā tē consulendum est. “You ought to take heed for your fellow citizens.”

Notice that the person for whom something is necessary or on whom duty lies is normally in the dative. However, when an intransitive verb is itself constructed with the dative, the person is indicated by the ablative with the preposition ab (ā).

Another way to express necessity is to use necesse est with the infinitive or a subjunctive clause as its subject. This construction is not as widely used as the one using the gerundive.

Tibi morī necesse est./Moriāre necesse est. “You must die.”

Tibi morī necesse erat./Morerēre necesse erat. “You had to die.”

Nōbīs dēlēre Carthāginem necesse est./Dēleāmus Carthāginem necesse est. “We must destroy Carthage.”

Necesse est takes a dative of the person for whom something is necessary, and so when it has as its subject the infinitive of a copulative verb which is accompanied by a predicative noun or adjective, the case of that noun or adjective is also dative.

Vōbīs necesse est virīs fortibus esse. “You must be brave men.”

Notice that both virīs and fortibus are dative.

Source

Post by: Diaphanus

Approved by: Lana

The English suffix -ty derives from the Latin suffix -tās, which appears at the ends of Latin abstract nouns. Adjective stems, rarely noun stems, take this -tās. The vowel i often appears before the suffix, and yet it may disappear or become e when the stem ends in -io-. And so:

bonitās, “goodness,” from bonus (bono-);

pietās, “sense of duty,” from pius (pio-);

lībertās, “liberty,” from līber (lībero-);

loquācitās, “loquacious,” from loquāx (loquāc-);

maiestās, “majesty,” from maior (maiōr-, older maies-);

auctōritās, “authority,” from auctor (auctōr-).

Cicero formed some jocular words in -tās:

appietās, “the nobility of the Appian family,” from Appius;

lentulitās, “the nobility of a Lentulus,” from Lentulus.

Many philosophical words in -tās appear in Medieval Latin that were created by adding the suffix to other parts of speech and even to entire phrases. So:

quidditās, “quiddity,” “what-ness,” from quid;

entitās, “entity,” from ēns, a participle form of esse;

haecceitās, “this-ness,” from haec;

perseitās, “per-se-ity,” “by-itself-ness,” from per sē.

The suffix may denote relationship, hence the word frāternitās, “brotherhood,” from frāternus. That word inspired writers of Medieval Latin to add the suffix to the word soror to get sorōritās, “sisterhood.” We members of Tumblr’s Latin fandom had that same “relationship” idea in mind when we came up with the word fautōritās, from fautor, to translate the English word “fandom.” Thus, we are the sodālēs Fautōritātis Linguae Latīnae Tumblrēnsis.

O, Eheu, who recently celebrated his second year here on Tumblr, invented the great word Eheuitās!

Sources

Cicero’s Style, Michael von. Albrecht;

Geschichte der philosophischen Terminologie, Rudolf Eucken;