Tag Archives: same

Nomina Castrata

The following is a list of nouns that features both a masculine and neuter form, each with the same meaning. Allen and Greenough hint that there are “many others of rare occurrence” beyond this list, suggesting neuter-for-masculine is a comfortable poetic standard, but these are the most common instances, or the ones used most widely in classical literature.

  • balteus/um, -ī sword belt, girdle
  • cāseus/um, ī cheese (also, in comedy, term of endearment)
  • clipeus/um, ī round brazen shield
  • collum/us, ī neck
  • cingulum/us, ī waistband, waist strap
  • pīleus/um, ī liberty cap
  • tergum/us, ī back
  • vāllum/us, ī wall, rampart

By the way, the Allen and Greenough term for these guys is heterogeneous. This term also covers the plūria transexuālia and plūria aliēna that I discussed in earlier posts.

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Cardinal Numerals, 1-10

There are four central aspects to the Latin numeral:

  • The cardinal: ūnus, duo, trēs, quattuor
  • The ordinal: prīmus, secundus, tertius, quārtus
  • The distributive: singulī, bīnī, ternī, quaternī
  • The adverb: semel, bis, ter, quater

From 1-10, only cardinals 1, 2, and 3 decline.

A few things to consider:

  • ūnus will often mean ‘only’ (cf. sōlus) and occasionally ‘the same’ (cf. idem)
  • where ūnus means ‘only,’ it may initiate a subjunctive clause of characteristic (the only man who may: ūnus cuī liceat.)
  • the compound ūnus quisque = every single one
  • the compound ūnus + superlative = the one most (the one most learned man, ūnus doctissiumus)
  • duo may also have the plural genitive duum
  • the word ambō (both, which retains the long ō of the lost Latin dual) declines like duo
  • the compound ūnus + superlative = the one most (ūnus doctissiumus, the one most learned man)

Here’s a chart I found showing the descendents of the Latin cardinals:

(courtesy N.S. Gill; http://tiny.cc/eoiqmw)(For those of you who are curious, there are between 30 and 40 standing Romance languages, but we’ll get to numbers above 10 next post…)

The Essential AG: 133-4

Demonstrative Pronouns (Īdem et Ipse)

Summary of Use

“Demonstrative pronouns are use either adjectively or substantively” (AG, 296)

As pronominal adjectives, the agree with their corresponding noun

  • With this battle fought, he went out: hōc proeliō factō, proficīscēbātur
  • They died in the same battle: eōdem proeliō periērunt.

In moments of apposition, the pronoun agrees with the appositive, not the antecedent

  • This was the head of things, this the source: rērum caput hōc erat, hīc fōns

As substantives, they are personal pronouns, frequently in the  oblique cases

  • Hostages ought to be given by them: Obsidēs ab eīs dandī sunt.
  • Let the songs be sung by them: carmina ab eīs ca canātur.
  • His army went out: exercitus eius prōfectus est.
  • Those men are the first across the Rhone: hī sunt extrā prōvinciam trāns Rhodanum prīmī 

Īdem, eadem, idem

Īdem should be translated that same one, and appears only with an antecedent or correlative

  • Gaius Caesar had proposed, yet he later opposed, the bill: C. Caesar lēgem relātus erat, īdem pōsterius oppositus est.
  • Here I see is the same man, who subdued all of nearer Spain: hīc eundem videō, qui tōtam Citeriōrem Hispāniam compressus est. 

 Often, this demonstrative requires an added ‘too’ or ‘also’ in English

  • He gave an oration, brilliant, able, and above all witty too: ōrātio splendida et grandis dēdit, et eadem in prīmīs facēta.
  • The colloquial and poetic use of īdem (funny to find these linked together) treats its adjectival use as an adjective of likeness or similarity, coupled with a dative verb or gerund
  • He who saves a man against his will does the same as one who kills him: invītum quī servat idem facit occīdentī. 
N.b. – īdem (m.) and idem (n.) may be distinguished (at least in poetry) by the length of their initial vowels

Ipse, Ipsa, Ipsum 

Ipse may be paired with “any of the other pronouns, with a noun, or with a temporal adverb for the sake of emphasis” (AG, 298c)

Here, it may be translated, ‘too,’ ‘also,’ ‘even,’ etc.

  • Even to me it seemed disgraceful: turpe mihi ipsī vidēbātur.
  • That man too came to that very place: ille ipse in eum ipsum locum vēnit.

Where ipse stands alone, it appears as an emphatic alternative to is, ea, id

  • This was splendid for the state, glorious for themselves: id reī repūblicae praeclārum, ipsīs glōriōsum fuit.
  • All good men offered as much as was in their power: omnēs bonī quantum in ipsīs fuit, tantum obtulērunt.

It can also reemphasize a subject in the first or second person

  • Remember in your own minds: vōbīscum ipsī recordāminī
  • Even I myself was astounded: etiam ipse obstipuī.

Ipse may appear in place of a reflexive

  • She washes the daughters and herself: fīliās atque ipsa lāvat.
  • They worry for their own peace: dē ipsius pāce sollicitant. 

Ipse will almost always agree with the subject, even where, in English, it seems to agree with the object

  • She washes the daughters and herself: fīliās atque ipsa lāvat. (not ipsam)
  • I console myself: mē ipse cōnsōlor (not ipsem)

The Essential AG: 146, 298b-d

Famous Phrase: ipsa scientia potestas est (knowledge itself is power)

-Sir Francis Bacon

demonstratives_p3.pdf