Latin Lesson #94: Wrapping up Week 22

The focus for today's lesson is more of those 3rd-conjugation imperatives. Here's a round-up of the 3rd-conjugation imperatives you have seen so far:

• fugit. flees. ~ fuge! flee!
• regit. rules. ~ rege! rule!
• vivit. lives. ~ vive! live!
• eligit. choose. ~ elige! choose!
• noscit. knows. ~ nosce! know!
• carpit. plucks. ~ carpe! pluck!
• induit. puts on. ~ indue! put on!
• arripit. grabs. ~ arripe! grab!
• adspicit. looks. ~ adspice! look!
• prospicit. looks ahead. ~ prospice! look ahead!
• respicit. looks back. ~ respice! look back!

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

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Vive hodie.
Live today.
vive HO-die.

You haven't seen the adverb hodie before, but you know the root word: dies.

You can pair this one up with two of the sayings from yesterday for some all-around life advice: 

Carpe diem.

 Vive memor mortis.


2. Da et accipe.
Give and receive.
da et AC-cipe.

The imperative accipe, "receive, take" is the root of English "accept." You haven't seen this word before, but you have seen other compounds from the root verb capit. When compounded, the cap- switches to cip- as you saw already with decipit.

The words come from the Biblical wisdom book known as Ecclesiasticus, and also by the name Sirach. Here is the King James translation of the verse: Give, and take (Da et accipe), and sanctify thy soul; for there is no seeking of dainties in the grave. All flesh waxeth old as a garment: for the covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death.


3. Pelle timorem.
Dispel fear.
pelle ti-MO-rem.

The imperative pelle, "drive away, dispel," is the root of English words like "dispel" and "repel." You've seen the verb repellit already.

You can find these words in a poem by the philosopher Boethius. The meter is "adonic" and consists of short 5-syllable lines. This saying, Pelle timorem, is an adonic line, a dactyl followed by a trochee. (For those of you who have studied Latin meter already, you'll recognize this as the most common ending of the dactylic hexameter line.)


4. Elige viam optimam.
Choose (the) best way.
E-lige viam OP-timam.

You've seen all the words in this saying already! Compare the saying you saw yesterday:

Mediam viam elige.
Just like in English, the Latin word via can mean a physical pathway or road, but also the "way" that you anything.


5. Aut disce aut discede.
Either leave or retreat.
aut disce aut dis-CE-de.

The conjunction aut means "or." When used in combination aut... aut..., it is equivalent to English "either... or..." 

The imperative disce means "learn!" and it is the root of English words like "discipline" and "disciple."

The imperative decede means "get out! leave!" and you can see the ced- root in English words like "recede" and "proceed." The Latin verb decedit is at the root of English "deceased."

As you might have guessed, this is a motto that has been adopted by some schools, and as such it has its own article at Wikipedia: Disce aut discede.

Here's a recap:

• Vive hodie.
• Da et accipe.
• Pelle timorem.
• Elige viam optimam.
• Aut disce aut discede.

And here is today's audio:



Plus the LOLCats!

---

Click here to subscribe/unsubscribe.

---