Latin Lesson #66: Wrapping Up Week 15

The focus for today's lesson is more practice with the -am accusative nouns. Each time you see an -am noun ending in the proverbs today, you know that it is the object of the verb. The object might come after the verb (like in English) or it might come before the verb; either way, you know it is the object of the verb because of the accusative ending: -am. 

Soon you will be learning the accusative endings for the other kinds of Latin nouns (2nd-declension, 3rd-declension, etc.), but for now the focus is on the 1st declension, where the theme vowel is -a- and the accusative ending is -am.

To get started, here is a little slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before: there are a lot of familiar words today!

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Ars perficit Naturam.
Art perfects Nature.
ars PER-ficit Na-TU-ram.

The new verb here is perficit which means "perfects, completes, finishes." It is a compound of per-ficit, "completely-does," and you will see the uncompounded verb, facit, below. This Latin verb gives us English "perfect."

While you've seen some other sayings that make Nature superior to Art (for example: Omnis ars naturae imitatio est), this saying declares that it requires Art to bring Nature to perfection, as if Nature herself were otherwise incomplete.


2. Naturam Minerva perficit.
Minerva perfects Nature.
na-TUram Mi-NER-va PER-ficit.

You know all the words in this saying, and the idea is the same as in the previous saying, but now the goddess Minerva (Greek Athena), the goddess of wisdom and crafts, takes the place of Ars.


3. Scarabeus aquilam quaerit.
(The) beetle seeks (the) eagle.
scara-BE-us A-quilam quaerit.

The new noun here is scarabeus (also spelled scarabaeus), which means "beetle," as in the English word "scarab."

This saying is from an Aesop's fable. There are quite a few sayings that come from Aesop's fables, like "sour grapes" (from the fable about the fox and the grapes) or "the lion's share" (about the lion and his hunting companions). The fable about the beetle and the eagle is less well known, but you can read it here: The Eagle and the Beetle. Short version: the eagle committed a crime against the beetle, so the beetle vowed revenge, and that's why the beetle is seeking the eagle... and that's bad news indeed for the eagle, because when the beetle finds the eagle's nest, he rolls all the eggs out and smashes them. So, the saying thus means that even someone who is powerless and weak, like the beetle, can seek revenge against the great and powerful, like the eagle.


4. Fortuna non addit sapientiam.
Luck doesn't add wisdom.
for-TU-na non addit sapi-EN-tiam.

The verb addit gives us English "adds," and also words like "addition," etc. The verb is a compound of a verb you already know: dat, "gives." So, addit is ad-dit: "toward-give."

The idea here is that when someone is lucky and/or when they get rich, that doesn't mean that they will become wise. 


5. Una linea geometram non facit.
One line doesn't make a geometer.
una LI-nea ge-O-metram non facit.

The feminine una, "one," is new, but you've seen the masculine form, unus, before.

The feminine noun linea gives us English "line"  and also words like "linear," etc.

The masculine noun geometra is borrowed from Greek, γεωμέτρης / geometres. It is a compound in Greek: geo-metres, "earth-measurer." You can see the same compound in English "geometry."
(Yes, there are some masculine nouns that belong to the 1st declension, including other words borrowed from Greek, like poeta and pirata.)
The verb facit, "makes," is the verb that gives us factum, a word you have seen before. You also saw a compound of this verb above: perficit.

There are a variety of Latin sayings that use this same formula; for example, Flos unus non facit hortum, "One flower does not make a garden." (See the -um ending there? That's the accusative ending for nouns of the 2nd declension; you'll be learning all about that soon too!)

And here is today's recap:

1. Ars perficit Naturam.
2. Naturam Minerva perficit.
3. Scarabeus aquilam quaerit.
4. Fortuna non addit sapientiam.
5. Una linea geometram non facit.

Plus today's audio:



And the LOLCats!

And while I don't have a LOLCat for the beetle and the eagle, here is an illustration of that story: you can see the beetle taking revenge on the eagle by rolling the eagle's eggs out of the nest:

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