Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #35: Third-Declension Genitive

Today we'll start on the genitive forms of the third-declension nouns and adjectives. Just like with the first and second declensions, you put a genitive ending on the stem to get the genitive form of the word. The genitive ending for the third declension is -is.

What's tricky, though, is that you cannot always figure out the stem of the third-declension nouns and adjectives just by looking at their nominative form. With the first declension, you just removed the final -a, and with the second declension you just removed the final -us or -um. But the third declension is not so simple.

This is where the Latin dictionary comes to your rescue! In a Latin dictionary, you can find BOTH the nominative AND the genitive of third-declension words. For an online dictionary, I highly recommend the wiktionary at Wikipedia. So, for example, here is the word pax, "peace" at the wiktionary: pax.

pāx f (genitive pācis); third declension

That gives you all the information you need: pax is a feminine noun (f), and its genitive form is pacis.

And what is the stem? Take the genitive pacis and removed the ending -is and that's the stem: pac-. You can then use that stem to generate all the other forms of this word. For right now, though, all you need is the genitive form.

I know that might seem a little overwhelming right now, but don't worry: we'll practice the third-declension genitives all this week. Then, for the next couple of weeks we'll practice with words from the first, second, and third declensions together so you can become completely familiar with all the different endings.

And I apologize for this long-ish post, but it's still under 1000 words; I checked!

So, to get started with those third-declension genitives, here are today's proverbs:

1. Signum pacis amor.
Love (is the) sign of-peace.
signum pacis amor

The neuter noun signum is the origin of the English word "sign" and you can also see it in "signal."

The genitive singular pacis is from pax, which you have seen already in this saying: Non est regnum Dei esca et potus, sed justitia et pax.

You also know amor from several sayings, including this one: Ubi amor, ibi oculus.

Remember that word order is free in Latin, so both signum pacis and pacis signum mean "sign of peace."

2. Pacis Amor deus est.
Love is (the god) of-peace.
pacis Amor deus est

You know deus from many sayings, such as this one: Et vocatus et non vocatus, deus est.

Notice the elegant word order here: the genitive phrase pacis deus, "god of peace," is wrapped around the word amor. In English word order, you would say: Amor est deus pacis, but Latin has free word order, so you can put the emphasis on pacis by making it the first word of the sentence.

3. Veri amoris nullus est finis.
(There) is no end of-true (of)-love.
veri a-MO-ris nullus est finis

You have two genitives here: veri and amoris. You already know that an adjective agrees with its noun in gender; now you can see that it also agrees with the noun in case. Both veri and amoris are masculine in gender and they are both genitive in case.

The adjective veri is the genitive of verus, a second-declension adjective you know from this saying: Amicus verus rara avis.

The noun amoris is the genitive of amor, a third-declension adjective. Here it is at the wiktionary: amor, showing both the gender and the genitive:

amor m (genitive amōris); third declension

You already know nullus from this saying: Nullus dies omnino malus.

You also know finis already: Finis miseriae mors est.

Notice how the phrase nullus finis wraps around the verb est.

Because the genitive expresses the idea of possession you could also translate Veri amoris nullus est finis as "True love has no end."

4. Somnus est frater mortis.
Sleep is (the) brother of-death.
somnus est frater mortis

The noun somnus means "sleep," and you can see this root in English "insomnia."

The noun frater means "brother," which you can see in English "fraternal" and "fraternity."

You already know the noun mors, and now you know the genitive form: mortis. Here is the wiktionary: mors entry:

mors f (genitive mortis); third declension

Now you also know that mors is a feminine noun, although you don't need to know the gender in order to understand this saying. But now that you know that mors is feminine, you could also say: Mors est soror somni, "Death is the sister of sleep."

5. Mors est latro hominis.
Death is (a) thief of-man.
mors est latro HO-minis

The word latro, "thief," is the root of English "larceny."

You already know the word homo (as in homo sapiens), and now you can see that the stem is homin- (a in English "hominid"), which results in the genitive hominis. Here is the wiktionary: homo entry.

homō m (genitive hominis); third declension

For more sayings like this, see the wonderful medieval Latin text that you can read in English here: The Debate between Pippin and Alcuin. Anyone who has lost a loved one knows that it feels like you have been robbed, hence death-the-robber, death-the-thief.

Here's a recap of today's sayings; I've underlined and bolded the genitive in each one: