Tag Archives: alternative

A Forbidding Post

interdīco, interdīcere, interdīxī, interdīctus: forbid
Interdīco (forbid) gets a note of it’s own in A&G because it’s case constructions have varied over time.

  • Earlier writers present interdīco + dative Person & ablative Thing Forbidden
  • Later writers use interdīco + dative Person & accusative Thing Forbidden

Exempla

  • They forbade him fire and water: aquā et īgnī eō interdīxērunt.*
  • Shall we forbid the women from wearing purple: fēminīs purpurae ūsū interdīcēmus?
  • He forbade the actors from appearing on the stage: histriōnibus scaenam accedere interdīxit.

*This was the standard formally for expressing ‘he is banished’

Also, I discovered during the construction of this post that ‘forbid’ is never the past tense of the English ‘forbid.’ It is usually ‘forbade’ and rarely ‘forbad.’ I hope I wasn’t the only person making this mistake… for 21 years…

The Essential AG: 365n1

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Verbs with Double Constructions

Many Latin verbs display flexibility of case use. For instance, the following verbs will take either (a) accusative Person + dative Gift; or (b) dative Person + ablative Gift.

  • dōnō, dōnāre, dōnāvī, dōnātus: give
  • impertiō, impertīre, impertīvī, impertītus: bestow
  • induō, induere, induī, indūtus: put on (clothes)
  • exuō, exuere, exuī, exūtus: take off (clothes)
  • adspergō, adspergere, aspersī, adspersus: sprinkle, scatter, splatter (alt. aspergō, aspergere, etc.)
  • īnspergō, īnspergo, īnspergere, īnspersī, īnspersus: sprinkle, scatter ‘into’
  • circumdō, circumdāre, circumdedī, circumdatus: enclose, encircle

Exempla

  • She gives her daughter a car: Fīliae autoraedam dōnat.
  • She gives her daughter a car: Fīliam autoraedā dōnat.
  • [More formally, we might say ‘she presents her daughter with a car.’]
  • He puts the robe on his son: Nātō vestem induit.
  • He puts the robe on his son: Nātum veste induit.
  • [More formally, we might say ‘he dresses his son with a robe.’]
  • I sprinkled the altar with water: Ārae aquam aspersī.
  • I sprinkled the altar with water: Āram aquā aspersī.
  • [More formally, for the first ‘I sprinkled water on the altar.’]
  • I enclosed the horses with a fence: equīs caevam circumdedī.
  • I enclosed the horses with a fence: equēs caevā circumdedī.
  • [More formally, for the first ‘I placed a fence around the horses.’]

The Essential AG: 364