Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #155: More -i datives

The focus for today's lesson is more practice with the nouns and adjectives that have -i for their dative ending. Most of them are 3rd-declension nouns and adjective, but you will also have one of those mixed words: nullus looks like a 1st/2nd declension adjective in the nominative, but it has -i for the dative ending: nulli.

Here are the dative words you will see in today's sayings:

nullus (stem: null-): nulli
amans (stem: amant-): amanti
avis (stem: av-): avi
homo (stem: homin-): homini
nemo (stem: nemin-): nemini

Have you noticed how the words homo and nemo resemble each other? That's because the word nemo is a contraction: ne-homo, no-person, much like English "no-body." Many Romans did not pronounce the letter h, so the word homo was pronounced "omo." You can see then how that would result in a contraction — ne-omo = nemo — because the vowels run together, not being separated by a consonant.

And now here is a slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before; all the words except for one in today's sayings are words you already know!

These are today's proverbs:

1. Nulli secundus.
Second to-none.
nulli se-CUN-dus.

The adjective secundum gives us English "second."

The word nulli is the dative form of nullus, and the phrase works just like in English: "second to none."

2. Nihil amanti durum.
Nothing (is) hard for-a-lover.
nihil a-MAN-ti durum.

The word amanti is the dative form of amans.

The adjective durum is neuter, agreeing with nihil.

You could also say Nihil amanti impossibile, "Nothing is impossible for someone in love."

3. Nemini nimium bene est.
Excess is good for-nobody.
NE-mini NI-mium bene est.

The word nemini is the dative form of nemo.

The words nimium and bene are both adverbs, so you could also translate this into English as: "Doing something excessively (nimium) is not doing well (bene) for anyone."

You have seen other sayings about the dangers of things done to excess: Omne nimium non bonum and Omne nimium nocet.

4. Omni avi suus nidus pulcher.
To-every bird its-own nest (is) pretty.
omni avi suus nidus pulcher.

The word avi is the dative form of avis, and the adjective omnis is also in the dative: omni.

This is a variation on the idea of "to each his own" (suum cuique is how you say that in Latin). Just as each bird thinks its own nest is beautiful, so too do human beings love their own home.

Compare a saying you saw earlier about another bird, noctua, the owl: Noctuae pullus suus pulcherrimus.

5. Homo homini aut deus aut lupus.
(One) person (is) either (a) god or (a) wolf to-(another)-person.
homo HO-mini aut deus aut lupus.

The word homini is the dative form of homo.

Notice how Latin uses the same word to create the parallelism, aut... aut..., while English uses a pair of different words: either... or...

This is similar to the way that homo... homini... here means "one person... another person..."

This proverb, which you can find in Erasmus, is a merger of two proverbs. You've seen one of those proverbs already: Homo homini lupus. The other saying is Homo homini deus. Put them together, and you've got two very different perspectives on human relations: one person might treat another person cruelly, like a wolf, or they might benefit that other person, like a benevolent god.

Here's a recap: