Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #62: Finishing up Week 14

Today's lesson reviews the verb endings again:

-at: 1st-conjugation verbs
-et: 2nd-conjugation verbs
-it: 3rd-conjugation AND 4th-conjugation verbs

Remember also to pay attention to the word order so that you can get used to the way that, in Latin, the subject can sometimes come before the verb!

And here is a little slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Nihil perpetuo durat.
Nothing lasts forever.
Nihil per-PE-tuo durat.

You haven't seen the adverb perpetuo, "forever, perpetually" before, but you have seen the neuter noun, perpetuum.

Likewise, the verb durat, "lasts, endures," is new, but it is related to the adjective dura, "hard," which you have seen in the superlative form: durissima, "hardest."

A fuller form of this saying, Nihil durare potest tempore perpetuo, "Nothing can endure for everlasting time," appears in the graffiti preserved at Pompeii. You can see a photograph and transcription from Pompeii here. That is a very ironic bit of graffiti: Pompeii was destroyed... but the graffiti has endured.

2. Fervet olla, vivit amicitia.
(The) pot boils, friendship lives.
Fervet olla, vivit ami-CI-tia.

The verb vivit, "lives, is alive," is new, but you have seen the participle: vivens, "living."

This is another version of the saying you saw yesterday: Amicus dum olla fervet.

Notice that you have two verbs here, and for both verbs, the subject comes after the verb.

3. Omne nimium nocet.
Every excess harms.
Omne NI-mium nocet.

The verb nocet, "harms, hurts," is new, but you have seen the noun nocumentum, "injury, harm."

The word nimium is a neuter adjective, "excessive," but it is being used as a noun here: "excess" (i.e. "excessive thing").

This is another version of a saying you saw earlier: Omne nimium non bonum.

4. Abundans cautela non nocet.
Abundant caution doesn't hurt.
A-BUN-dans cau-TE-la non nocet.

The 3rd-declension adjective abundans gives us English "abundant." The root is unda, "wave, flood," so something that is "abundant" is like a river overflowing its banks, full of water.

The adjective is feminine in form, agreeing with the feminine noun cautela.

Compare the English phrase, "out of an abundance of caution..." The English phrase even has its own wiktionary entry, which explains that it is an imitation of the Latin.

5. Veritas non erubescit.
Truth doesn't blush.
VE-ritas non eru-BES-cit.

The verb erubescit literally means "turns red," i.e. "blushes." The root is rubeus, "red," as in English "ruby."

This is another one of those verbs with -sc- that indicates a process: turning red. Some other -sc- verbs you have seen include crescit, "grows, increases," arescit, "turns dry, dries," and senescit, "grows old."

You have also seen several words with this -itas suffix, which creates an abstract noun: brevitas, "brevity," caritas, "charity," felicitas, "happiness, felicity," mediocritas, "mediocrity," utilitas, "utility," and veritas, "truth, verity."

This saying has a life of its own in English too: Truth doesn't blush. The idea is that the truth, no matter what it might be, has nothing to be ashamed of.

Here's a recap: