Latin Lesson #44: More Noun Practice

The focus for today's lesson is more practice with nouns, including both nominative and genitive forms. You'll see nouns from all 3 declensions today, so here's a quick reminder of how that works: 

1. 1st declension (mostly -a feminine): amara, doctrina, vita
2. 2nd declension (mostly -us masculine and -um neuter): condimentum, optimum, perpetuum, proelium
3. 3rd declension (all 3 genders, various endings, but most commonly -s... and for -x, see below): dulcis, fames, radix, vox, testis

And here's a slideshow to review the words you've seen before:

And now here are today's proverbs:

1. Vita perpetuum proelium.
Life (is an) endless battle
vita per-PE-tuum PROE-lium

The new word here is perpetuum, which gives us English "perpetual."

The sound-play in Latin with the repetition of p...p... is the key to this saying, but that doesn't come through in the English. Compare the saying you saw earlier: Militia est vita hominis.


2. Unus testis, nullus testis.
One witness, no witness.
unus testis, nullus testis

You know all the words in this saying!

The idea is that the testimony of one person is not worth anything. If you only have one witness, you might as well have no witness at all.


3. Vox et praeterea nihil.
(A) voice and nothing besides.
vox et prae-TE-rea nihil

The new word praeterea, "besides, in addition," is a compound: praeter-ea, "beyond these things." You can see Latin praeter in the English word "preternatural," i.e. "beyond the natural."

The other new word is vox, a 3rd declension feminine noun; its genitive form is vocis. That means the stem is voc- and the nominative ending is -s: "voc-s" gives the spelling vox. You can see this Latin word in "vocal," and also in "voice" and "vowel."

The idea here is "All talk and no action." Someone might be making noise, talking big, boasting, but that's all there is: a voice. Nothing more than that.


4. Optimum condimentum fames.
Hunger (is the) best seasoning.
OP-timum condi-MEN-tum fames

You've seen the masculine adjective optimus before; this is the neuter form, optimum, agreeing with the neuter noun condimentum, "spice, seasoning," which gives us English "condiment."

Compare the English saying, "Hunger is the best sauce." If you're hungry, anything edible tastes good!


5. Doctrina est fructus dulcis radicis amarae.
Learning is (the) sweet fruit (of a) bitter root.
doc-TRI-na est fructus dulcis ra-DI-cis a-MA-rae

The feminine noun doctrina, "learning," is from the verb docere, "to teach." You can see this Latin word in English "doctrine." 

The masculine noun fructus, "fruit," is also new, and it gives us English "fruit." You can see the Latin more clearly in "fructose."

The other new noun is radix, a 3rd declension feminine noun; its genitive form is radicis. That means the stem is radic- and the nominative ending is -s: "radic-s" gives the spelling radix, the same pattern as with vox (see above). This Latin word gives us English "radical" and "eradicate," plus "radish" too.

The point of this saying is the contrast between bitter and sweet: the process of learning can be bitter (that's the amara radix, the bitter root), but the outcome is sweet (that's the dulcis fructus, the sweet fruit). 

I hope these Latin lessons are not too bitter!


Here's a recap:

1. Vita perpetuum proelium.
2. Unus testis, nullus testis.
3. Vox et praeterea nihil.
4. Optimum condimentum fames.
5. Doctrina est fructus dulcis radicis amarae.

And here is today's audio:



Plus the LOLCats to sweeten things up :-)

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