Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #182: Hunting and Fishing

The focus for today's lesson is two more deponent verbs (passive in form, active in meaning): venatur, "hunts, goes hunting," and piscatur, "fishes, goes fishing."

You can recognize the piscis, "fish," in the word piscator.

As for venatur, it is actually related to the name Venus, the goddess of love: hunting is about chasing what you desire, as is love. There is also an archaic English word, "venery," which means "hunting."

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

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Piscatur in aere.
(He) is-fishing in air.
pis-CA-tur in A-ere.

The word aere is the ablative form of the word aer, "air," which is a Latin word borrowed from Greek ἀήρ (aer), which is the origin of English "air" too. Notice that this word is two syllables in Latin: a-er, so the ablative form is three syllables: a-e-re.
This is another one of those proverbs about a fool's errand: you will never catch a fish if you are fishing in the air instead of in the water.

2. Aureo piscatur hamo.
(He) is-fishing (with a) golden hook.
AU-reo pis-CA-tur hamo.

The word hamo is the ablative form of the noun hamus, "hook, barb," and the adjective aureo is also in the ablative. Notice how the ablative phrase aureo...hamo wraps around the verb.

To fish "with a golden hook" means that someone is foolishly risking something of great value, the golden hook, for little gain: a golden hook is far more valuable than the fish it might catch, and the danger is that the fish will escape with the hook, as fish sometimes do.

According to the Roman historian Suetonius, this was a favorite saying of the Emperor Caesar Augustus.

3. In aqua turbida piscatur uberius.
(One) fishes more-richly in stirred-up water.
in aqua TUR-bida pis-CA-tur u-BE-rius.

The word aqua (aquā) is the ablative form of the noun aqua, used with the preposition in.

The adjective turbida is also ablative (turbidā), agreeing with aqua; it means "stirred up, disorderly, troubled," and it gives us English "turbidā."

The word uberius is a neuter adjective being used as an adverb here, meaning "more richly, more abundantly." The implied comparison is that it is more profitable fishing in stirred up waters than in calm waters.

Compare the English saying, "fishing in troubled waters," which means to take advantage of political and social turmoil, making a profit in the midst of chaos. This is a long-lived and widely used saying; you can read an entire article about it here: Fishing in Troubled Waters: A Cross-Cultural and Historical Study Of A Persistent Proverb.

4. Aquila non venatur muscam.
(An) eagle doesn't hunt (a) fly.
A-quila non ve-NA-tur muscam.

You know all the words in this saying!

Notice that while the verb venatur is passive in form, it is active in meaning, and it even takes a direct object, like an active verb: muscam is the accusative form of musca, and it is the object of the verb.
The idea is that the noble eagle does not bother with hunting something as small and lowly as a fly. Compare a similar saying you've seen before about the mighty elephant and flies: Elephas muscam non curat.

5. Feles vociferans nil venatur.
(A) yowling cat can-hunt nothing.
feles vo-CI-ferans nil ve-NA-tur.

The word vociferans is a compound: voci-ferans, "voice-bearing," and you've seen the word vox before.

The word nil is a neuter noun, which means the nominative and accusative case are exactly the same. Here nil is the accusative form, the object of the verb venatur.

I've translated venatur nihil as "can hunt nothing." Sometimes a Latin verb corresponds to the English sense of "can" as possibility; if you ever need to add "can" to your English translation of a Latin verb, feel free to do that.
The idea is that if a cat is making a lot of noise, it won't be able to hunt anything because its prey will hear it coming.

Here's a recap: