Compounds Verbs with Inter-

Inter- can appear as a prefix to verbs (and also to derived nouns, adjectives and adverbs). Where it appears, it often bears one of three general effects on the corresponding base verb—

1. Effect of Intervals

• interaestuō—to boil slowly (bubble up from time to time)
• interārescō—to decay (dry up little by little)
• interdō—to give at intervals
• interpurgō—to cleanse here and there
• interbrādō—to scape here and there
• intersileō—to remain silent in the meanwhile

2. Effect of Insertion

• intercalō—to insert a day in the calendar
• intercapiō—to take away (by coming between the object and its possessor)
• intercēdō—to intervene
• intercipiō—to intercept
• interclāmō—to cry aloud amid
• interfluō—to flow between
• internascor—to grow among
• interrogō—to interrogate
• intersaepiō—to fence in
• interveniō—to come between

3. Effect of Dissolution

• intercīdō—to cut up
• internoscō—to distinguish
• interpolō—to spoil, corrupt
• interprīmō—to squeeze or crush to pieces
• interscindō—to tear asunder
• interversor—to turn hither and thither

Of course, there is conceptual overlap amid these categories. Interrelations, if you will.

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Compound Verbs with Intrā—

You would think, given the vast tribe of verbal compounds with inter- as a prefix, that a few species of intrā-compounds would also inhabit that wood of the Latin dictionary. In fact, they are highly endangered, perhaps even extinct. Here are a few compound adjectives and nouns that I discovered; the verbs were nowhere to be found.

• intrābilis (adj)—possible to enter
• intrāclusus (adj)—shut in, enclosed
• intrāmeātus, -ūs (n)—a journey within
• intrāmūrānus (adj)—within the walls
• intrāneus (adj)—within

Throwing a Fit

The impersonal phrase ‘fit ut‘ may be rendered in English as ‘it happens that…’ or ‘it comes about that…’ and takes a subjunctive clause in Latin. This ut-clause may be classed as one of result.

Recall that fit is the third person singular active indicative of fiō, which bears a complicated relationship to faciō, explained best by Mark Damen here. For more information on fiō, don’t bother with the Perseus edition of Lewis and Short. Even the advanced entry looks like this—

So detailed! So precise!

Here are a few examples of fit ut in action—

Fit ut hominēs causā nullā multa timeant: It (often) happens that men fear many things with little (good) reason.

Fit ut imbri crebrō certāmen differat: It is the case that, with the heavy rain, the match shall be cancelled.

The Essential A&G: 568n2, 569.2

Hedging in Latin

How does one hedge their language in Latin? One option might be a relative clause of characteristic (with the subjunctive!)

• So far as I know, she never left the house: quod sciam, numquam domum abiit.
• From what I have heard, he enjoys three cocktails every evening: quod audīverim, tribus mixtīs cotīdiē fruitur.
• She’s an idiot, at least in my view: stulta est, quō modō videam.

The Essential AG: 535d

Plūrālia Tantum

I’ve discussed this phenomenon in parts in places, but I have never full described the phenomenon of plūrālia tantum—Latin words that appear categorically as plural nouns.

The plūrālia include—

• names of cities: Athēnae, Thūriī, Philippī, Veiī
• names of festivals: Olympia, Bacchānālia, Quīnquārtrūs, lūdī Rōmānī
• names of social classes: optimātēs, maiōres (ancestors), liberī, penātēs, Quirītēs (citizens)
• words that are plural in nature, like the English ‘jeans, scissor, contents, etc.’: arma, artūs (joints), dīvitiae, scālae (stairs), valvae (folding doors), forēs, angustiae, moenia, dēliciae (beloved), faucēs (throat), īnsidiae (ambush), cervīcēs (neck), viscera (flesh).
• words that are popular plural poetical tropes: sceptra (for sceptrum), ora (for ōs), silentia (for silentium).

Where these appear in the singular, they often have meanings slightly distinct from their plural forms:

• Optimās, optimātis: aristocrat
• Foris, foris: gate

The Essential A & G: 101-2

Imperative of Sciō, Habeō and Meminī

The imperative of sciō is scītō in the singular and scītōte in the future. These are the future forms, but they are used in the present tense.

Even if you’re a whiz and you know that already, it might be a little less where how to use this imperative in a Latin sentence. The Romans don’t appear to have ordered others to do things like ‘know these by heart before Friday’s exam.’ Instead, the imperative of ‘know’ was more often something like ‘rest assured’ or ‘recall,’ confirming or searching for what is already known rather than standing for the imperative ‘learn.’

• Scītōte vobīs semper deum propitium esse, sī bonīs: Know that the god will always favor you, so long as you are good.
• Scītō tibi gratiās dābō: trust that I will return the favor.
• Scītō exemplum tuī patris: recall the example of your father.

This is also true of habeō, where it means understand, and mēminī. 

• Habētō tibi me nōn irātum esse: realize that I  am not angry with you.
• Habetōte vostrum finem: know your limits.
• Mementō ora candentia parentis: recall your mother’s glowing features.

From the examples in Lewis and Short, I cannot be sure, but it appears that the imperatives of sciō will always take a direct object or an infinitive construction, and never the dē + ablative construction that may appear with other moods of sciō.

The Essential A  & G: 182a.

Irregular Imperatives in Compounds

What you probably know:

Somewhere in Latin class, you likely came across the most common irregular imperatives: dīc, fer, dūc, fac — Speak, Carry, Lead, Do. I repeat them in this order to recreate the mnemonic DFDF, SCLD — Dufus! Dufus! Scold him!, which I was introduced to early on.

What you might not know is whether these irregular forms are maintained within compounds. Indeed, they are, with one exception.

• Cōnfer haec exempla: compare these examples.
• Infer tribūtum reditūs foederāle semel in annō: pay your federal income taxes once a year.
• Eam addūc ut moveat: persuade her to move.
• Dēdūc maiōrīs verbīs fābulam: expand on your story with more words.
• Maledīc donec potes: curse them while you still can.

The exception is therefore fac, which is derived from faciō, a verb that more often than not takes its compounds in –ficiō. Such compounds do not display an irregular imperative.

• Effice tria carmina: complete three poems.
• Infice regem priusquam cīvēs cōnficiat: poison the kill before he kills the citizens.

If you’d like a refresher on the plurals: cōnferte, addūcite, maledīcite, facīte, efficite, etc.

Also, note that early late features the occasional face, dūce, and dīce (but never fere).

The Essential A & G: 182.

Genitive of Friendship

Yeah, I made that genitive up, but only to describe a real phenomenon in Latin! Some adjectives of likeness, nearness, and belonging that normally take the dative will occasionally take a possessive genitive. This transition is especially common where the adjective approaches the force of a noun.

• Fuit hōc quondam proprium populī Rōmānī: this was once peculiar to the Roman people. (~a peculiar trait of)
• Fuit semper amīcus Cicerōnis: he was always friendly with Cicero. (~a friend of)
• Adeō patris similis es: you’re just like your master. (~a chip off the old block)

Here’s the full list of adjectives that perform this function—

• aequālis,  aequāle: of the same age (~a contemporary of)
• affīnis, affīne: related to by marriage (~kinsman of)
• aliēnus, -a, -um: belonging to another (~a stranger to)
• cōgnātus, -a, -um: fellow-born (~kinsman of)
• commūnis, commūne: common to (~kinsman of)
• cōnsanguineus, -a, -um: sharing a bloodline (~kinsman of)
• contrārius, -a, -um: opposite (~the opposite of)
• dispār: unlike (dispar suī, in philosophical diction)
• familiāris, familiāre: of close relation (~intimate of)
• fīnitimus, -a, -um: adjoining (~neighbor of)
• inimīcus, -a, -um: hostile to (~enemy of)
• necessārius, -a, -um: connected with (~component of)
• pār: equal to (~a match)
• pecūliāris, pecūliāre: personal (~peculiar trait of)
• propinquus, -a, -um: neighboring (~neighbor of)
• proprius, -a, -um: personal (~peculiar trait of)
• sacer, sacra, sacrum: holy (~holy with respect to some deity)
• similis, simile: alike to (~spitting image of)
• superstes: surviving (~survivor of)
• vīcīnus, -a, -um: neighboring (~neighbor of)

Note that this genitive construction is actually more common for proprius, -a, -um than the dative construction.

Similis with the genitive is especially common with personal pronouns (meī, tuī, suī) and within the fixed phrase vērī similis (probable).

I-Stems: Neuter Declension [p2/8]

As A&G note, “The i-stem was confused by even the Romans themselves.” There are a variety of variations with this stem present in all three grammatical genders, making it incredibly difficult to organize the data except in broad patterns and rote memorization. To that effective, I’m going to design a series of posts on the i-stem declension.

The basic neuter i-stem declension takes the stem (mari-) and converts the final i- to an e- in the nominative and accusative singular.

mare, maris (n.) sea

sedīle, sedīlis (n.) seat

(photo credit: Wiktionary).

In this basic output, the neuter i-stem is far more regular than its masculine and feminine counterparts:

• Nominative and accusative singular: -e
• Ablative singular: -ī
• Nominative and accusative plural: -ia
• Genitive plural: -ium

These are all regularized and there are no exceptions…except for the majority of nouns in the neuter i-stem declension, which don’t decline like this at all. Most neuter i-stem nouns have a consonantal base in -al or -ar, which is retained in all morphological forms. This causes only one change: these forms are animal, animalis, and not *animale, animalis. Everything else remains the same.

tribūnal, tribūnālis (n.) judge’s platform

There’s one feature that Wiktionary fails to capture in this chat. The -a- at the end of the stem is short in the nominative and accusative singular, but along everywhere else (see my lexical entry above). This is true of all i-stem nouns ending in –al or -ar.

calcar, calcāris (n.): spur

(Here they got the -a- right. Go figure.)

There you have it! The neuter i-stem declension. It’s fairly regular; it merely entails a large quantity of regular rules.

The Essential AG: 68-9

Verbs Found Chiefly In the Imperative

A few verbs (some of which you’re already familiar with) appear chiefly in the imperative, and only rarely in other forms.

• salvē, salvēte, salvētō : hail! [the forms salvēre, salveō, salvētis and salvēbis are also found.]
• avē/havē, avēte, avētō : hail! or farewell! [the form avēre is also found.]
• cedo, cedite/cette : hand it over! tell! (not cēdo… cedo is a second person imperative; cēdo is a first person indicative)
• apage : begone! (cf. Gk. ἄπαγε)

A Lewis and Short search suggests that the latter two (quite reasonably given their Greek roots) are found principally in Roman comedy.

The Essential AG: 206g