Below is this week's catch-up post to help you review any lesson(s) you missed over the past two weeks of lessons and/or to work on whatever kind of practice is most useful to you. These are the lessons covered in today's review:
And this is the slideshow with all the sayings from the week. You can read out loud, first with the English to remind you of the vocabulary... and then read out loud again with the cat!
The focus for today's lesson is more practice with dative nouns and adjectives that take the -i ending. You will see some 3rd-declension nouns here which you have seen before, like vulpes (dative: vulpi) and nemo (dative: nemini).
But two of the words today might surprise you: solus and nullus. These adjectives have mixed forms! Sometimes they look like they belong to the 1st and 2nd declension, as in these nominative forms: sola, solus, solum, and nulla, nullus, nullum. But sometimes they look like the 3rd declension: the dative form of solus is soli, and the dative form of nullus is nulli. You will see both of those forms in today's sayings. (There are other adjectives that have this mixed pattern, and we will be learning more about them later when we start working on Latin pronouns, which also have mixed patterns.)
To get ready for today's sayings, here is the vocabulary slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before:
And here are today's proverbs:
1. Soli deo gloria.
Glory to-God alone.
soli deo GLO-ria.
The word deo is the dative form of deus, and the word soli is the dative form of the masculine adjective solus, agreeing with masculine deo. This famous saying has its own article at Wikipedia: Soli Deo Gloria.
2. Ars varia vulpi.
A-fox (has) various trick(s).
ars VA-ria vulpi.
The word vulpi is the dative form of vulpes, and the dative form here has the sense of possession, so I have included "has" in the translation. Literally the saying reads: "Various trickery (is) to-the-fox."
The dative of possession is often used for intangible things, like ars, which can mean "art, skill," but which can also mean "scheme, trick, trickery," as it does here. The fox is a proverbially tricky animal!
The feminine adjective varia agrees with the feminine noun ars. You have not seen this form of the adjective before, but you have seen the masculine form: varius.
This saying is part of a larger saying contrasting the fox and the hedgehog: Ars varia vulpi, ars una echino maxima, "The fox has various tricks; the hedgehog has but one, but it is a very big one." You can read more about this famous saying at Wikipedia: The Hedgehog and the Fox. In Aesop's fables, the cat takes the place of the hedgehog, contrasting the fox's many tricks with the cat's one trick; the cat's one trick is to climb a tree, as the hedgehog's one trick is to roll up into a ball. Here is the fable: The Fox and the Cat.
3. Mors nemini parcit.
Death shows-mercy to-nobody.
mors NE-mini parcit.
The word nemini is the dative form of nemo. The verb parcit means "spares, shows mercy," and it takes a dative complement: parcit nemini. You can see this Latin root in the English word "parsimonious."
This is yet another saying about the universality of death, an idea you have seen in other sayings already, such as Aequa mors est and Mors servat legem: tollit cum paupere regem.
4. Nulli malum pro malo.
(Repay) to-nobody evil for evil.
nulli malum pro malo.
The word nulli is the dative form of nullus, and the dative is being used here with an implied verb of giving, giving back, repaying, etc., so I have included "repay" in the translation. The force of the dative case is so great that it can carry that dative meaning even without a verb!
The word malum is the accusative form of the neuter adjective malum which is being used here substantively as a noun: "evil (thing)." It is the object of the implied verb of giving.
The word malo is the ablative form of the neuter malum with the preposition pro.
This saying is adapted from the New Testament Letter to the Romans.
Compare the English saying, "Two wrongs don't make a right."
5. Nil agenti dies longus est.
The-day is long for-(someone)-doing nothing.
nil a-GEN-ti dies longus est.
The word agenti is the dative form of agens, "doing, driving." You have not seen agens before, but you have seen the infinitive form, agere, of the verb agit, "does, drives."
The word nil is the accusative object of agenti. Participles are like nouns in that they have case (so agenti is dative case) while they are like verbs too, able to take a direct object.
The word longus is a masculine adjective agreeing with dies. You have not seen the masculine form of this adjective before, but you have seen the neuter form, longum.
You can find this saying in the writings of the Roman philosopher Seneca.
