Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #11: Masculine and Feminine Nouns

The focus for today's lesson is more masculine nouns and adjectives that end in -us, along with some feminine nouns too. There are no new sentence patterns here, so it's just a matter of new vocabulary. That is really the biggest obstacle in learning a new language: grammar is not all that hard (there's not very much grammar)... but there is always a lot of vocabulary. I hope that by learning the vocabulary in the context of these memorable sayings, the new words will stick in your memory!

So, here are today's sayings:

1. Ventus est vita mea.
My life is (a) wind.
VEN-tus EST VI-ta ME-a.

Latin ventus, "wind," is a word you have seen already in the saying Juventus ventus.

You've seen Latin vita, "life," several times already: vita: Dum vita est, spes est; Peregrinatio vita est; and Vita est somnium.

The adjective mea, "mine," is feminine, agreeing with feminine vita.

The idea is that life is like the wind, always moving on: it's here, and then it's gone.

2. Amicus verus rara avis.
(A) true friend (is a) rare bird.
A-MI-cus VE-rus RA-ra A-vis.

You've seen Latin amicus, "friend," and also Latin rara, "rare," in a very similar saying already: Amicus res rara.

Latin verus, "true," has the same root as the noun veritas, "truth," which you have seen already: Amara est veritas. You can see this root in English words like "verify" and "veritable."

Latin avis, "bird," is a feminine noun, so the adjective rara is also feminine. From this Latin root we get English words like "aviation" and "aviary."

The English idiom "rare bird" imitates Latin rara avis, meaning something unusual; the Latin poet Juvenal invoked the "black swan" as a specific example of a rare bird. For more about black swans metaphor see Wikipedia: Black Swan Theory.

3. Parva avis, parvus nidus.
Small bird, small nest.
PAR-va A-vis, PAR-vus NI-dus.

You've seen the phrase parva domus, "small house," and now you get the small home of a bird, parvus nidus, "small nest." Both Latin nidus and English "nest" come from the same Indo-European root: nisdós, which literally means "where (the bird) sits down."

The idea is that a little bird needs only a little nest; only a big bird needs a big nest. No McMansions for little birds!

4. Ubi veritas, Deus ibi est.
Where (there is) truth, there is God.
U-bi VE-ri-tas, DE-us I-bi EST.

You've seen all the words in this saying before! Remember, you can always use the Dictionary page to look up sayings by the words that appear in them.

Compare a similar saying that you saw earlier: Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.

5. Patria mea totus mundus est.
My fatherland is (the) whole world.
PA-tri-a ME-a TO-tus MUN-dus EST.

Latin patria is a feminine noun formed from the word pater, which means father; compare English "fatherland." From this same Latin root we get English "patriotic." Because patria is feminine, you see the feminine adjective here: mea.

Originally, patria was also an adjective being used in the phrase patria terra, "father land." Over time, the word patria came to be used independently, with the noun terra implied. When an adjective is used as a noun like this, it is called a "substantive" noun, and substantive nouns are very common in Latin; I'll have more to say about that later when we get to the neuter nouns and adjectives.

From Latin totus, "all, whole, entire" we get the English word "total."

From Latin mundus, "world," we get English "mundane."

These words appear in the writings of the Roman philosopher Seneca, expressing the idea of "cosmopolitanism," that is: being a citizen of the cosmos, not just of the land in which you were born. Latin mundus is equivalent to the Greek word kosmos, which has been adopted into English as "cosmos."

Here's a recap: