Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #8: Res (thing)

The focus for today's lesson is a very important Latin feminine noun: RES. This word means "thing," and you can see it in the famous Latin phrase: res publica, "the public thing," which is where we get the English word "republic."

There are no new sentence patterns here, just some new vocabulary. As you will see, each of the sayings contains the word res. Some of the sayings below contain words that you know already, so I have not explained those words; you can always use the dictionary page to look up words you have seen previously.

So, here are today's proverbs:

1. Amicus res rara.
(A) friend (is a) rare thing.
A-MI-cus RES RA-ra.

Latin amicus means a "friend," and it can also be used as an adjective, "friendly." Specifically, this is a male friend, a boyfriend; amica is a girlfriend. You can see this root in the English word "amicable," and it also gives us Spanish amigo. The Latin word amor, "love," is from this same root. Legal English still uses the Latin phrase amicus curiae, "friend of the court," or, shortened: amicus, as in the phrase "amicus brief."

Latin rara means "rare," and it is the origin of that English word.

Notice that you can have a masculine noun, amicus, as the subject of a sentence, and a feminine noun, res, as the predicate. The subject and the predicate of a sentence do not have to agree in gender, but in a noun phrase, like res rara, the noun and its adjective do have to agree in gender; both res and rara are feminine.

2. Credula res amor est.
Love is (a) credulous thing.
CRE-du-la RES A-mor EST.

Latin credula means "credulous," and it is the origin of that English word. The root is the verb cred-, which means "trust" or "believe," so credula conveys the idea of trusting or believing easily and quickly, even too easily and too quickly.

The poet Ovid uses this saying twice, once in the Metamorphoses in the story of Procris and Cephalus, and once in the Heroides, when Hypsipyle is writing to Jason.

3. Res est forma fugax.
Beauty is (a) fleeting thing.
RES EST FOR-ma FU-gax.

Latin forma means "shape" or "form," and in particular it means a beautiful shape or form, so it also comes to mean 'beauty." From this root we get English "form," format," "formula," etc. You can also see the Latin root in the place name Ilha Formosa, the old Portuguese name for Taiwan, "Beautiful Island."

Latin fugax means something "fleeting," from the verb fugi-, "flee, run away." You can see that root in English words like "fugitive" and "refugee."

This saying is another example of a wrap-around Latin sentence: the predicate, res fugax, "a fleeting thing," wraps around the subject and verb: est forma, "beauty is."

The saying can be found in Seneca's play about Phaedra.

4. Res immoderata cupido est.
Desire is (an) unrestrained thing.
RES im-mo-de-RA-ta cu-PI-do EST.

Latin immoderata is in-moderata, "unrestrained, unmoderated." The "n" of the prefix in- assimilates to the following consonant: immoderata. You can see this root in English words like "moderate," unmoderated," "immoderate," etc.

Latin cupido means "desire," and it is also the name of the Roman god, Cupido, who becomes "Cupid" in English. More at Wikipedia: Cupid.

The idea is that desire knows no limits, it has no boundaries: desire can never get enough. This was a popular Latin emblem topic; you can see a multilingual example in Otto Vaenius's Amorum emblemata.

5. Melior est res quam spes.
(A) thing is better than hope.
ME-li-or EST RES QUAM SPES.

Latin melior, "better," is the comparative form of the adjective bona, "good."

Latin quam here means "than." Earlier you saw that quam can also mean how: Quam dulcis libertas! You will find that Latin quam has many meanings, often with entirely different English translations.

The idea is that hope is good, but the thing itself is better! In other words: Spes bona est, sed res ipsa melior, "Hope is good (spes bona est), but (sed) the thing itself (res ipsa) is better (melior)."