Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #23: One More Day of Neuter Words

The focus for today's lesson is neuter nouns and adjectives again.

As you now know, the neuter nouns and adjectives of the second declension end in -um. Those are easy to recognize!

The neuter nouns and adjectives of the third declension have a variety of different endings. Many of the adjectives end in -e, so those are pretty easy to recognize also.

But the third declension neuter nouns can be hard to recognize, so I'm going to review those third-declension neuter nouns here. You have seen four of these in previous lessons:

mel. honey.
nomen. name.
omen. omen.
tempus. time.

Here are two new nouns for today's lesson:

fel. gall, bile.
lac. milk.

And now... here are today's proverbs!

1. Lac gallinaceum.
Chicken's milk.
lac galli-NA-ceum

The neuter noun lac, "milk," gives us English "lactose."

The neuter adjective gallinaceum is from the noun gallina, "chicken, hen."
Of course, you can't get milk from a chicken, so this is a proverbial fool's errand. Compare the English sayings "Scarce as hen's teeth" and "Blood from a turnip."

2. Ubi mel, ibi fel.
Where honey (is), there (is) gall.
ubi mel, ibi fel

You've seen lots of ubi...ibi... sayings, including two with the word mel: Ubi apes, ibi mel and Ubi mel, ibi apes.

The neuter noun fel literally means "gall, bile," and it also means "bitterness, venom."

The key feature of this Latin saying is that mel rhymes with fel, as if somehow the similar sound links them together, even though the sweet honey and the bitter gall are opposites. There are lots of Latin proverbs that play on the words mel-fel; here's another example: Mel in ore, fel in corde, "Honey in the mouth, bile in the heart."

3. Tempus breve est.
Time is short.
tempus breve est

You've seen tempus before, in the saying: Heu, heu, praeteritum non est revocabile tempus.

The neuter adjective breve, "brief, short," is the origin of the English word "brief," and you can also see this Latin root in words like "abbreviate" and "brevity."
This is popular inscription on sundials, as you can see here on this sundial in Barcelona.

4. Nil magis nostrum est quam tempus.
Nothing is more ours than time.
nil magis nostrum est quam tempus

The Latin word nil, "nothing," has been adopted into English as "nil." The word is a contraction of nihil, which you can see in English words like "nihilism" and "annihilate."

The adverb magis, "more," is related a word you have seen before, magister, in these sayings: Nemo magister natus and Optimus magister bonus liber.

The neuter adjective nostrum, "ours," gives us the English word "nostrum."

The word quam is used in comparisons: magis quam, "more than." You've already seen quam used to express a comparison in this saying: Melior est res quam spes.
This saying is adapted from a poem by the Renaissance Latin poet Michaelis Verinus. The idea is that we really do have our own time, i.e. our own lifetime: it may be brief (tempus breve est), but it really is ours!

5. Praeteritum nihil, praesens instabile, futurum incertum.
(The) past (is) nothing; (the) present, unsteady; (the) future, uncertain.
prae-TE-ritum nihil, praesens in-STA-bile, fu-TU-rum in-CER-tum

You've seen praeteritum before in this saying: Heu, heu, praeteritum non est revocabile tempus.

The neuter adjective praesens, "present" is the origin of English "present" also.

The neuter adjective instabile is a compound: in-stabile, "not stable, unstable, unsteady." The adjective stabile is from the verb stare, "to stand," and you can see this root in the English word "stable."

You've seen futurum before also: Futurum invisibile.

The neuter adjective incertum is another compound: in-certum, "uncertain, unsure." You've seen the adjective certum already in this saying: Medium certum est.
You can see a variation on this saying on a sundial in Groningen in the Netherlands.

Here's a recap: