Lectio vicesima quinta

Notes

1. Quidam, a certain (see L. 23, P. 1). We said that Latin has no article, but that it replaces it when necessary with appropriate words: here is an example of that!

2. Brevibus cruribus: ablative (pl. 3rd declension) which is shows that short legs are a specific quality of the dog (canem): it is the ablative of quality.

3. Aspiciens: present participle of aspicio, -is, -ere, to behold.

4. Volo, -as, -are, to fly; praeter, along (with a second sense of except). Hence terram praetervolare, to fly low (to hedgehop). We can also say demissé volare (P. 2).

5. Pluet: future of pluit (it is raining), an impersonal verb. Rain is pluvia, -ae, f., for rain in general, but imber, -bris, m., downpour, falling or impending rain. This latter word is masculine (m.) and belongs to the 3rd declension.

6. Voro, -as, -are, to devour; voror, -aris, -ari, to be devoured; vorarer, vorareris, voraretur, etc., is the imperfect subjunctive passive.

   A galliná, ablative of agent (long á), because the hen is a living being, like the medicus of lession 23 (P. 3). Gallina, -ae, hen, whence gallinaceous. Gallus, -i, cockerel or Gaul: you now see where the famous cockerel symbol of France (and of Portugal) comes from!

7. Curo, -as, -are (to take care of) and sano, -as, -are, to cure, like most verbs in -a, have their perfect in -avi. But do, -as, -are, to give, for example, becomes dedi in the perfect.

8. Colloquebatur, imperfect of colloquor = cum + loquor (to speak with).

9. Non dubito quin + subjunctive: for the time being think of these words as an idiomatic expression: I have no doubt that. But you have already seen dubitare, to be uncertain, to hesitate (L. 22, P. 1).

NB.— Fio, fis (infinitive fieri), to be made, to become, is used as the passive of facio, -is, -ere, to make (P. 2).

We reviewed the 1st declension in lesson 22. Today we are going to bring some order to our knowledge of the second. This declension includes nouns in -us, which are masculine with some rare exceptions (such as methodus from lesson 13, which is feminine), nouns in -er, equally masculine, and nouns in -um, which are all neuter. It also comprises adjectives in -us or -er in the masculine and -um in the neuter (and whose feminine is in -a).

The genitive of this declension is in -i.

1 st Let's look at masculine nouns in -er and in -us to start with (the generous smith):

Singular: Plural:

nom. FABeR GENEROSus FABRi GENEROSi

acc. FABRum GENEROSum FABRos GENEROSos

gen. FABRi GENEROSi FABRorum GENEROSorum

dat. FABRo GENEROSo FABRis GENEROSis

abl. FABRo GENEROSo FABRis GENEROSis

Notice that the only question to ask about nouns in er is whether their genitive is in eri (e.g.: PUER, PUERi), or whether on the other hand the e of the nom. disappears in the other cases (e.g.: AGeR, AGRi).

2nd Neuter nouns in -um differ from the preceding only by their nominative singular in -um (the same as the accusative for all neuter words) and by their nominative and accusative plural in -a:

GRANum: acc., GRANum; gen., GRANi; dat. and abl. GRANo. Plural: nominative and acc., GRANa; gen., GRANorum; dat. and abl. GRANis.

Adjectives of the first class are declined:

In the masculine, like the nouns in -us or in -er of the 2nd declension; in the feminine, like the nouns of the 1st declension (see L. 22); in the neuter, like the nouns in -um of the 2nd declension. Examples:

BONus, m. BONa, f. BONum, n. good

NIGeR NIGRa NIGRum shiny black

TENeR TENERa TENERum tender

In the dictionary, you will find just: bonus, -a, -um; niger, -gra, -grum; tener, -era, -erum; which is enough to know the complete declension of all three genders.

For a few days the notes are going to be a bit longer. It will be enough for us to make a little supplementary effort in order happily to get through this passage of the declensions. You will soon see that this monster is rather less terrible than they would have liked to have us believe.

Exercitatio