Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #58: More 3rd-conjugation verbs

The focus for today's lesson is more -it verbs. Take a minute to review the ones that you saw yesterday:

Tempus fugit.
Parum sufficit.
Nemo solus satis sapit.
Cito arescit lacrima.
Mendacium non senescit.

And here is a little slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before, including the verb sufficit that will appear again today. :-)

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Species decipit.
Appearance deceives.
SPE-cies DE-cipit.

The noun species has a wide range of meanings. Literally, it means "appearance, looks," but then by extension it came to mean "quality, type," which is how we get English "species."
The verb decipit means "deceives, fools," and gives us English "deception." Via French, this Latin verb is also the origin of English "deceive."

Compare the English saying, "Appearances can be deceiving."

2. Unus non sufficit orbis.
One world isn't enough.
Unus non SUF-ficit orbis.

The noun orbis literally means "circle, sphere," and it also means the "world," which is the meaning here. The Latin noun gives us English "orb" and "orbit."

This saying appears in one of the satires of the poet Juvenal, writing about Alexander the Great: Unus Pellaeo iuveni non sufficit orbis, "One world is not enough for the young man of Pella," i.e. for Alexander, who was born in Pella. It was a popular motto throughout the centuries, and also provided the title for a James Bond film: The World Is Not Enough; supposedly Orbis non sufficit was the Bond family motto!

Notice how the subject comes after the verb (sufficit orbis), with the noun phrase unus orbis wrapping around the verb.

3. Avaritia semper crescit.
Greed always grows.
Ava-RI-tia semper crescit.

You've seen the adjective avarus, "greedy," before, and from that same root comes the noun avaritia, "greediness." This is also the origin of English "avarice."

The verb crescit, "grows, increases," gives us English "crescent" and "increase."

You've seen too other sayings about what "always" happens to the greedy person: Avarus semper est pauper and Avarus semper eget.

4. Quasi nix tabescit dies.
Like snow, (the) day melts.
Quasi nix ta-BES-cit dies.

The word quasi is a compound, qua-si, "as if." We use this Latin word in English too: "quasi."

The noun nix means "snow," and like English "snow" it comes from the Indo-European root sneygʷʰ.
Together, the words quasi nix make a metaphorical expression: "as if snow, like snow."

The verb tabescit means "melts, dissolves." Like the other -sc- verbs, this is about a process, a verb describing how something changes from one state to another. You've seen two other -sc- verbs so far: crescit and senescit.

You learned yesterday how quickly time goes by: Tempus fugit, which uses the metaphor of motion, as if time were running away. Now you have a different metaphor for how the present passes away into the past: it melts like snow. The words come from the Roman comic playwright Plautus.

Notice that the subject comes after the verb again here: tabescit dies.

5. Nemo me impune lacessit.
No-one attacks me with-impunity.
Nemo me im-PU-ne la-CES-sit.

You've seen the adjective impunitum, "unpunished," before, and now you have the adverbial form: impune, "with impunity, not being punished." You've seen that -e adverbial ending before: male, "badly," and bene, "well."

Latin me is just like "me" in English! This is the accusative case used for the object of a verb, just like "me" is the object of the verb in Latin. The form "I" is the nominative case in English, used for the subject of a verb; in Latin, as you will learn later, ego is the nominative form.
The verb lacessit means "attacks, provokes, arouses."

This famous motto has its own Wikipedia article: Nemo me impune lacessit. In particular, it is the national motto of Scotland. The me in the saying was originally the prickly Scottish thistle which supposedly spoke these words, threatening Viking invaders.

Here's a recap: