Any kind of mark or indicator, it could be a military standard, a signal, a token, a symptom, a statue, a seal, or a heavenly constellation (a sign of the zodiac). The Latin word signum was amazingly flexible in meaning. In medieval Latin, the diphthong ae and the long vowel e also became almost identical in sound (“ay”) thus taedium was spelled tedium, and praemium (“reward”), premium. This fact helps explain the spelling of price and precious. In late Latin, however, both these syllables were pronounced, and pretium (now “preh-tsee-oom”) was often misspelled as precium. In classical Latin, officium was pronounced “of-fee-kee-oom” and pretium, “preh-tee-oom” there was no risk of confusing the sounds of ci- and ti. The original Latin meaning can often be found in Elizabethan English, and is still alive in expressions such as “through your kind offices.” Our word office usually implies either a place of business (“I’m going to the office”) or a position in a hierarchy (“She was elected to high office”). Spelled as it was in Latin, the English noun odium suggests the hatred that clings to a person who has become dishonored or disgraced a close synonym is another Latin 2nd declension derivative, opprobrium. Table 2.3 LATIN SECOND DECLENSION NOUNS IN -UM fatum But don’t forget that data and media are plural forms purists use them only with plural verbs. In English, we can choose as we like between forums and fora, auditoriums and auditoria, referendums and referenda. As you are surely aware, the Latin plural of words in -um is -a. Others are more complex words whose form we’ll come to understand later in the course: aquarium, auditorium, memorandum, referendum. English has borrowed a number of these directly from Roman public and private life: forum, atri um, rostrum, stadium (originally Greek). The other type of 2nd declension noun ended in -um. Forms like this can be described as HOMOGRAPHS. ![]() If you look up mood in the dictionary, you will find that there are two quite different English words, identical in spelling-one Germanic and one Latin. From modus we get the doublets mode and mood (as in the “subjunctive mood”). Locus and terminus have also entered English without change, and you may know animus as a word that suggests “hostile feeling” or “hatred.” Don’t be bothered by the double U in equus Latin qu was pronounced /kw/, virtually as in English, and the word-base here is equ. Table 2.2 LATIN SECOND DECLENSION NOUNS IN -USĪ few of these nouns ( campus, circus, etc.) we’ve seen already. Though you may hear the form octopi, it is historically incorrect, since octopus is a Greek derivative meaning “eight-foot.” We can even invent pseudo-Latin singular forms: in Wayne and Shuster’s famous Shakespearean television skit, when Julius Caesar asked for a double martini, he was told that he could have only one martinus. ![]() ![]() This type of Latin plural can trick us into drawing false analogies. In the case of asparagus, we just avoid the problem altogether-though the Romans quite logically called the vegetable asparagi. Sometimes there’s a choice: cacti and cactuses are both correct, as are fungi and funguses. Campus and circus, for instance, are not considered exotic or technical no one would dream of saying “campi” or “circi.” In contrast, most of the remaining words do retain that original Latin plural, like bacilli, radii, alumni. The Latin plural of stimulus was stimuli, originally pronounced “stimul-ee,” but in English normally pronounced “stimul-eye.” How we pluralize words like this will be a good test of their acceptance into everyday English speech.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |