Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #92: 3rd-conjugation imperatives

The focus for today's lesson is something new: this time it is the imperative form of the 3rd-conjugation verbs. You may be surprised... the ending again is -e. Here are a few 3rd-conjugation verbs with their imperative forms so you can see how that works:

capit "takes" ~ cape "take!"
comedit "eats" ~ comede "eat!"
currit "runs" ~ curre "run!"
quaerit "seeks" ~ quaere "seek!"
vivit "lives" ~ vive "live!"

If you are curious: the difference between the e imperative for the 3rd conjugation and the 2nd conjugation is that the e for the 2nd conjugation is a long e and the 3rd conjugation is a short e, so they would be pronounced a little bit differently, but the difference does not affect the word stress. As English speakers, we are very aware of word stress, while vowel length is not a regular feature of our language the way it was for Latin. (Instead of long vowels, we have diphthongs instead, which is not quite the same as a pure vowel pronounced longer.) Later on, however, when we get to the infinitive forms of the verbs, then the difference between long e of the 2nd conjugation and short e of the 3rd conjugation will affect the word stress, so I'll have more to say about it then.

To get ready for today's proverbs, here is a little slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Aleam fuge.
Flee (the) die.
A-leam fuge.

You already know the words in this saying.

Remember Iacta alea est...? ("The die is cast.) Now you have aleam, the accusative form of alea.

The imperative fuge is from a verb you know already: fugit.

This saying tells you to avoid gambling! It is one of the famous "Sayings of Cato," which you can see online here: Cato's Monostichs (i.e. Cato's "one-liners").

2. Iracundiam rege.
Rule (your) rage.
ira-CUN-diam rege.

The noun iracundiam is the accusative of iracundia, "bad temper, rage." You haven't seen this noun before, but you've seen the root word: ira.

The verb rege is the imperative form of a verb you know already: regit.

This is another one of the monostichs of Cato.

3. Mediam viam elige.
Choose (the) middle way.
ME-diam viam E-lige.

The adjective mediam is the accusative of media, "middle." This is the feminine form of the adjective; you have seen the masculine and neuter forms already: medius and medium. This feminine accusative adjective agrees with the feminine accusative noun: viam.

The verb elige means "choose, select." This verb is the root of English "elect."
This is another saying that warns against extremes: instead of one extreme or the other, choose the middle way. It's the safe choice!

4. Nosce tempus.
Know (the) time.
nosce tempus.

The verb nosce means "know! recognize!" You can see this root in the English word (borrowed from Italian) "cognoscenti."

The noun tempus is in the accusative case. Because tempus is a neuter noun, the nominative and accusative forms are the same, but since "you" is the subject of the verb (the subject of an imperative verb is always "you"), that means it is the accusative object of the verb.

The "time" here means the right moment, the time of opportunity. The word tempus has a wide range of meanings in Latin as you can see from the Latin dictionary: tempus.

5. Leonis pellem indue.
Put-on (the) lion's skin.
le-O-nis pellem IN-due.

The noun leonis is the genitive form of leo.

The noun pellem is the accusative form of pellis, "skin." You can see this root in English "pellicle."
The verb indue means "put on, don." You can see this root in English "indument."

The idea here to be courageous, putting on the lion's skin as if you were the hero Hercules, who regularly wore a lion's skin. Specifically, he wore the skin of the famous lion of Nemea; killing that lion was one of the labors of Hercules. You can find out more at Wikipedia: Nemean lion.

Here's a recap: