Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #45: Genitives and More

You'll see a variety of sentence patterns today, along with some genitive phrases. Remember Ubi... ibi? You'll have one of those today, and you'll see a new way of using the genitive, along with a very elegant example of Latin wrapped phrases. And a bit of Horace!

But first, a slideshow review (with cats!) of words you already know from today's proverbs. Try to do some reading out loud so that you can really hear the old words coming back to life for you!

And here are today's sayings:

1. Ubi libertas, ibi patria.
Where freedom (is), there (your) homeland (is).
ubi li-BER-tas, ibi PA-tria

You know all the words in today's saying, and you also know the Ubi...ibi... pattern from previous sayings like Ubi periculum, ibi lucrum and Ubi thesaurus, ibi oculus. You can use the Sayings list to find all the other sayings that start with Ubi.

The idea here is that freedom is what really matters, not where you were born. So, if you are living somewhere where you are not free, it's good to go looking for freedom, and where your find freedom, there you find your homeland. You can see this saying on a lovely bookplate from Colonial America.

2. Aut Caesar aut nihil.
Either emperor or nothing.
aut Caesar aut nihil

The new word in this saying is Caesar, which was originally a Roman clan name, or cognomen, which then became a shorthand way of saying "emperor," as the Julio-Claudians were the first Roman imperial family. You can find out more at Wikipedia: Caesar - Title. This is the origin of the German word Kaiser, which is much closer to the Roman pronunciation than English "Caesar." It is also the origin of the Russian word tsar.

The construction aut...aut... in Latin, "or... or..." is equivalent to English "either... or..."

Unlike other sayings that praise taking the middle course, this saying advocates for extremes: either the top, Caesar, or nothing, nihil. Compare the English phrase, "all or nothing." Historians speculate that the phrase may have originated with Julius Caesar himself (he was a great self-promoter); later, it was a personal motto of a different Caesar: Cesare Borgia.

3. Ira furor brevis est.
Anger is (a) brief madness.
ira furor brevis est

The new word in this saying is furor, a masculine 3rd-declension noun that gives us English "furor." Because furor is a masculine noun, it takes a masculine adjective: brevis.

The words come from one of Horace's letters in verse, or Epistolae. Here is more:

ira furor brevis est: animum rege, qui nisi paret,
imperat; hunc frenis, hunc tu compesce catena.
anger is a brief madness: control your mind; if your mind obeys not,
it rules you — you better rein it in, keep it on a leash.

4. Magna vis pecuniae.
Great (is the) force of-money.
magna vis pe-CU-niae

You have two new words in this saying!

The feminine noun vis, "force, might" is at the root of English "violence," and the Latin word vis can also have the sense of "violence, assault," etc. It is a more dangerous word than potentia, which you have seen before. Because vis is feminine, it takes a feminine adjective: magna.

The word pecuniae is the genitive of pecunia, "money." You can see this Latin root in English "impecunious," without-money.

5. Nulla longi temporis felicitas.
No happiness lasts (a) long time.
nulla longi TEM-poris fe-LI-citas

The new word here is longi, the genitive of longum, "long." Both Latin longum and English "long" derive from the same Indo-European root, dlongʰos. You've already seen the feminine form of this adjective, longa, as here: Ars longa, vita brevis. and Legis manus longa.

The genitive temporis is from tempus, "time," a neuter noun, hence the neuter genitive adjective, longi.

This is a new kind of sentence pattern: you have a noun phrase, nulla felicitas, which is the subject, and then the genitive phrase, longis temporis, is the predicate. Literally, it says "no happiness is of a long time," i.e. "No happiness lasts a long time." We have some genitive idioms like this in English too; for example: "These materials are of the highest quality" or "These shoes are of the same size."

Notice the elegant word order here, with the subject noun phrase wrapping around the genitive phrase: NULLA longti temporis FELICITAS.

Here's a recap: