Below is this week's catch-up post to help you review any lesson(s) you missed over the past two weeks of lessons and/or to work on whatever kind of practice is most useful to you as you get familiar with these deponent verbs:
And this is the slideshow with all the sayings from the week. You can read out loud, first with the English to remind you of the vocabulary... and then read out loud again with the cat!
The focus for today's lesson is two more deponent verbs (passive in form, active in meaning): venatur, "hunts, goes hunting," and piscatur, "fishes, goes fishing."
You can recognize the piscis, "fish," in the word piscator.
As for venatur, it is actually related to the name Venus, the goddess of love: hunting is about chasing what you desire, as is love. There is also an archaic English word, "venery," which means "hunting."
To get ready for the proverbs, here is today's slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:
And here are today's proverbs:
1. Piscatur in aere.
(He) is-fishing in air.
pis-CA-tur in A-ere.
The word aere is the ablative form of the word aer, "air," which is a Latin word borrowed from Greek ἀήρ (aer), which is the origin of English "air" too. Notice that this word is two syllables in Latin: a-er, so the ablative form is three syllables: a-e-re. This is another one of those proverbs about a fool's errand: you will never catch a fish if you are fishing in the air instead of in the water.
2. Aureo piscatur hamo.
(He) is-fishing (with a) golden hook.
AU-reo pis-CA-tur hamo.
The word hamo is the ablative form of the noun hamus, "hook, barb," and the adjective aureo is also in the ablative. Notice how the ablative phrase aureo...hamo wraps around the verb.
To fish "with a golden hook" means that someone is foolishly risking something of great value, the golden hook, for little gain: a golden hook is far more valuable than the fish it might catch, and the danger is that the fish will escape with the hook, as fish sometimes do.
According to the Roman historian Suetonius, this was a favorite saying of the Emperor Caesar Augustus.
3. In aqua turbida piscatur uberius.
(One) fishes more-richly in stirred-up water.
in aqua TUR-bida pis-CA-tur u-BE-rius.
The word aqua (aquā) is the ablative form of the noun aqua, used with the preposition in.
The adjective turbida is also ablative (turbidā), agreeing with aqua; it means "stirred up, disorderly, troubled," and it gives us English "turbidā."
The word uberius is a neuter adjective being used as an adverb here, meaning "more richly, more abundantly." The implied comparison is that it is more profitable fishing in stirred up waters than in calm waters.
4. Aquila non venatur muscam.
(An) eagle doesn't hunt (a) fly.
A-quila non ve-NA-tur muscam.
You know all the words in this saying!
Notice that while the verb venatur is passive in form, it is active in meaning, and it even takes a direct object, like an active verb: muscam is the accusative form of musca, and it is the object of the verb. The idea is that the noble eagle does not bother with hunting something as small and lowly as a fly. Compare a similar saying you've seen before about the mighty elephant and flies: Elephas muscam non curat.
The word vociferans is a compound: voci-ferans, "voice-bearing," and you've seen the word vox before.
The word nil is a neuter noun, which means the nominative and accusative case are exactly the same. Here nil is the accusative form, the object of the verb venatur.
I've translated venatur nihil as "can hunt nothing." Sometimes a Latin verb corresponds to the English sense of "can" as possibility; if you ever need to add "can" to your English translation of a Latin verb, feel free to do that. The idea is that if a cat is making a lot of noise, it won't be able to hunt anything because its prey will hear it coming.
The focus for today's lesson is another deponent verb: irascitur. In English we don't have a simple verb that conveys this same meaning; you have to say something like "become angry" or "get angry." Those English verbs are a little weird when you think about it, right? But those "become ___" and "get ___" phrases often correspond to Latin deponent verbs which are passive in form but active in meaning.
And do you remember the adjective iratus, "angry"...? You have seen that in several proverbs, including Iratum noli stimulare and Male irato ferrum committitur. That adjective is a participle formed from this verb: after a person irascitur, "gets angry," then they are "angry," iratus.
To get started, here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:
And here are today's proverbs:
1. Numquam sapiens irascitur.
(A) wise (person) never gets-angry.
numquam SA-piens i-RAS-citur.
You know all the words in this saying! These words were written by the Roman politician and philosopher, Cicero.
For a saying about what does happen on that very rare occasions when a wise man gets angry, see #4 below.
2. Invidia tacite sed inimice irascitur.
Envy grows-angry silently but dangerously.
in-VI-dia TA-cite sed ini-MI-ce i-RAS-citur.
You see two adverbs in this saying, tacite and inimice, which come from words you have seen before. The adverb tacite, "silently," is related to the verb tacet. The word inimice, "like an enemy, dangerously," is formed from the adjective inimicus. This is one of the sayings of the Latin writer, Pulilius the Syrian; you can find out more about him at Wikipedia.
3. Homo extra est corpus suum cum irascitur.
When (a) man gets-angry, (he) is outside his body.
homo extra est corpus suum cum i-RAS-citur.
This is a long saying, but you know all the words in this one too! The Latin phrase extra corpus suum, "outside his own body," is equivalent to the English phrase "beside himself." Have you ever thought about that phrase in English? It's kind of odd when you think about it, and seeing the Latin equivalent can help you to appreciate the oddity of the English cliche too.
This is another one of the sayings of Publilius Syrus.
4. Tarde sed graviter vir sapiens irascitur.
(A) wise man gets-angry slowly but seriously.
tarde sed GRA-viter vir sapiens i-RAS-citur.
This saying features another new adverb, graviter, "heavily, seriously," and it is from an adjective you know already, grave.
Yet another saying from Publilius Syrus. As you can see, he had a lot to say about anger! Unlike Cicero (see #1 above), Publilius acknowledges that a wise man can get angry, but not quickly; it takes a long time, tarde.
For a similar saying about a good-hearted person or good soul, bonus animus, see the next saying.
5. Bonus animus laesus gravius multo irascitur.
(A) good soul (when) outraged is-angered much more-deeply.
bonus A-nimus laesus GRA-vius multo i-RAS-citur.
You haven't seen the masculine adjective laesus, "injured, wounded, outraged," but you have seen the feminine form: laesa. It is masculine because it agrees with the subject of the sentence, animus.
This saying features the comparative form of the adverb graviter that you saw in the previous saying; this form, gravius, means "more heavily, more seriously, more deeply." It might look like a masculine adjective, but it's not: it's a neuter adjective being used as an adverb.
The word multo is the ablative form of the neuter adjective multum. It means "by far," and it is used with the comparative adverb, multo gravius, much more-deeply. (You'll learn more about this use of the ablative when we start working on the comparative forms of all the adjectives and adverbs.)
The idea is that a good-hearted person, when pushed far enough, experiences that anger more deeply. Compare a saying that you've seen before: Laesa saepius repugnat ovis.
This week the quiz-slideshow focus on accusative forms: -am for the first declension, -um for the second declension, and -em for the third declension masculine nouns, but remember those neuter nouns: they are the same in the nominative and in the accusative, which means you will see some endings other than -em when it is a neuter noun. Look out for those neuter examples in the slideshow below!
Using the quiz-slideshow, you can check yourself by looking at the cat slide that follows the slide with the missing word(s). You can also begin at the end and work backwards, giving yourself a different kind of quiz: seeing the slide without English and trying to supply the English, checking your answer on the next slide, reviewing with the cat slide, and then seeing if you can fill in the blank.
And remember: on the slides that contain the English translation, the English is linked to the original blog post if you want some help in understanding the grammar of the saying.
Here is a link to the full-size quiz-show, and the show is embedded in the blog post here too:
If you want to do even more reviewing (you cannot review too much!), here are the vocabulary review slideshows from previous weeks.
And here is the Week 53 Crosswordfor you to download and print; like last time, the emphasis is on the passive verb forms that you have been practicing. Screenshots:
And... here's a random cat (with a new cat when you reload the page):
The focus for today's lesson is another deponent verb (passive verb forms only; no active forms): labitur. It has a wide range of meaning — glide, slide, move, slip, float, pass, flow — depending on context. You'll see a range of translations even just in today's sayings, all of which feature this verb.
Some English words from this Latin root are "labile" and "lapse," plus its compounds: collapse, elapse, relapse, etc.
And here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before; you know almost all of the words in today's sayings already!
And here are today's proverbs:
1. Ut amnis vita labitur.
Life slips-by like (a) river.
ut amnis vita LA-bitur.
You know all the words in this saying! The meaning of labitur has to do with the way water moves in a river: it flows by, slips by, etc. As does life!
The word amnis can also be translated as "brook," and that's how this became a motto of the Brook family.
2. Cito pede labitur aetas.
Time glides-by (with a) swift foot.
cito pede LA-bitur aetas.
The word aetas can mean "time" but it can also mean "life" in the sense of "lifetime."
In this saying, instead of slipping by like a river, now time is gliding by on a quick foot, cito pede. The word cito is the ablative form of the masculine adjective citus, agreeing with pede, the ablative form of pes.
The words come from a poem, The Art of Love, by the Roman poet Ovid.
3. Nummus ubi praedicat, labitur iustitia.
Where money talks, justice falls.
nummus ubi PRAE-dicat, LA-bitur ius-TI-tia.
In this saying, labitur has the meaning of "fall, fall down," as in English "collapse."
The verb praedicat, "talk," is the origin of English "preach." It also gives us English "predicate." These words come from a poem by the 12th-century poet, Walter Map. Sad to say, all these centuries later, the words are still very true and very relevant.
4. Labitur e mente cito res bona, sed mala lente.
(A) good thing slips from (the) mind quickly, but (a) bad (thing) slowly.
LA-bitur e mente cito res bona, sed mala lente.
This is a long saying, but you already know all the words here too!
The word mente is the ablative form of mens, used with the preposition e (ex).
Notice that the word cito here is not an adjective; instead, it is an adverb. Neuter adjectives often function as adverbs in Latin. The saying depends on the contrast between the two adverbs: cito and lente.
Notice also that this is a rhyming proverb: mente ... lente. That indicates its medieval origins!
5. Cras, cras, cras, cras: sic omnis dilabitur aetas.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow: thus (an) entire lifetime passes-away.
cras, cras, cras, cras: sic omnis di-LA-bitur aetas.
This time you have a compound form: dilabitur, which is dis-labitur, "fall apart, pass away, dissolve, scatter," where the prefix dis- gives that sense of coming apart, separating.
This is another rhyming proverb from the Middle Ages: cras ... aetas.
You've seen a similar saying about cras (procrastination!) before, with much the same meaning: Per multum cras, cras, semper consumitur aetas.
Here's a recap:
Ut amnis vita labitur.
Cito pede labitur aetas.
Nummus ubi praedicat, labitur iustitia.
Labitur e mente cito res bona, sed mala lente.
Cras, cras, cras, cras: sic omnis dilabitur aetas.
The focus for today's lesson is another very common deponent verb: moritur. This verb has only passive forms; there is no verb "morit" — only moritur, a passive verb with an active meaning in English: "dies, is dying," etc. in English. Since the topic of death is very common in proverbs, there are lots of proverbs that feature this word.
You might have encountered a different form of this verb already in the famous Latin phrase memento mori, which means "remember (that you are going) to die." The word mori is the infinitive form of moritur. Just as the verb moritur is passive, not active, the infinitive mori is a passive infinitive. You will learn more about passive infinitives later! Meanwhile, you can read more about Memento mori at Wikipedia.
1. Rex numquam moritur.
(The) king never dies.
rex numquam MO-ritur.
You know all the words in this saying, now that you've learned the verb moritur.
The idea is that as soon as one king dies, another one is crowned. The king may die, but the kingship continues.
You can find the idea expressed in this formula also: "The king is dead! Long live the king!" In Latin, that is Rex mortuus est, vivat rex, "The king is dead; let the king live!"
2. Mala herba difficulter moritur.
Bad grass dies with-difficulty.
mala herba diffi-CUL-ter MO-ritur.
You have not seen the adverb, difficulter, "with difficulty," before, but you have seen the adjective that it comes from: difficile.
Compare the English saying, "Only the good die young."
You've seen a similar saying about "bad grass," i.e. "weeds" — Herba mala cito crescit. In English the saying is "Weeds grow apace."
3. Moritur doctus, similiter et indoctus.
The learned-man dies, as also the-unlearned.
MO-ritur doctus, si-MI-liter et in-DOC-tus.
You have not seen the masculine adjective doctus, "learned," before, but you have seen the verb that it comes from: docet. The adjective indoctus is in-doctus, "not-learned, unlearned." The adjectives are being used substantively here: doctus is "a learned (man)" and indoctus is an "unlearned (man)."
You also have not seen the adverb, similiter, "similarly, as," before, but you have seen the adjective that it comes from: simile.
The word et is being used here not as a conjunction ("and"), but instead as an adverb: "even, also, too."
This pessimistic saying comes from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible, which reiterates the futility of life and of learning with sayings like this. The King James version reads: "And how dieth the wise man? As the fool."
4. Avarus, nisi cum moritur, nil recte facit.
(The) miser does nothing right, except when he dies.
a-VA-rus, nisi cum MO-ritur, nil recte facit.
The word nisi (ni-si) sometimes means "if not" in English, but sometimes it is better translated as "except," which is the translation which fits best here.
You also know all the words in this saying. The greediness of the miser is a kind of absolute evil in Latin proverbs. So, as this proverb claims, there is nothing good about a miser while he is alive; the only good thing he can do is finally just die so that his wealth can be inherited by others.
5. Dormit aliquando ius, moritur numquam.
Justice sometimes sleeps (but) never dies.
dormit ali-QUAN-do ius, MO-ritur numquam.
And you know all the words in this saying too!
The saying plays on the superficial similarity between sleeping and death, an idea you have seen expressed in other proverbs. For example: Somnus est frater mortis.
In other words, it may seem as if justice has died, that there is no longer any justice in the world, but don't worry: justice is just sleeping, and it will wake up, sooner or later. Justice is not dead yet!
Below is this week's catch-up post to help you review any lesson(s) you missed over the past two weeks of lessons and/or to work on whatever kind of practice is most useful to you. These are all your deponent verbs: loquitur, sequitur plus its compounds, and nascitur.
And this is the slideshow with all the sayings from the week. You can read out loud, first with the English to remind you of the vocabulary... and then read out loud again with the cat!
