Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #188: 1st Conjugation, cont.

The focus for today's lesson is one more review day for the 1st conjugation — the active and passive verbs, plus the imperative and the infinitive — which has a as its theme vowel. (Next week, we'll do a review of the 2nd conjugation, which has e as its theme vowel.)

And here is the slideshow (with cats) of the words you have seen before; almost all the words today are familiar ones:

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Fricantem refrica.
Scratch-in-return (the one) scratching (you).
fri-CAN-tem RE-frica.

You've seen the verb fricat, "scratches," before, and both of these words are formed from that verb.

The word fricantem is the accusative form of the participle fricans, "scratching."

The word refrica is the imperative form of the verb refricat, "re-scratch, scratch in return."

The scratching here is all good, as in the English saying, "You scratch my back; I'll scratch yours." Or, in other words, "One good turn deserves another."

2. Dormitat et Homerus.
Even Homer nods.
DOR-mitat et Ho-ME-rus.

You've seen the verb dormit before, and dormitat is a variation on that verb: it means "naps, nods, feel sleepy."

The word et here is being used adverbially, like English "too, also, even."

Homer, of course, was the great founding poet of the European tradition, the composer of the Iliad and the Odyssey. But just because he was a great poet does not mean that his compositions were perfect, and this phrase refers to how Homer has his weak points, inconsistencies, etc. The words come from the Roman poet Horace; you can find out more about this saying at the Wiktionary, where it has its own entry.

3. Caritas non cogitat malum.
Love doesn't think evil.
CA-ritas non CO-gitat malum.

You already know all the words in this saying!

The form malum is a neuter adjective being used substantively as a noun: "(a) bad, evil (thing)." It could be either nominative or accusative because those forms are identical for all neuter nouns and adjectives, so it could be either the subject or the object of the verb. In this saying, however, you can tell from context that it must be the object: caritas is unambiguously in the nominative case, so it is the subject of the verb, while malum is the object.

I found this photograph of a mosaic from a church in Brighton, England which displays these words:

4. Mel nulli sine felle datur.
Honey without bile is-given to-nobody.
mel nulli sine felle datur.

You also know all the words in this saying already, and you've seen other Latin sayings that depend for their appeal on the sound-play of mel and fel, for example: Ubi mel, ibi fel, and Mel in ore, fel in corde.

The verb datur is passive: "is given" (from dat, "gives"). The word nulli is the dative form of nullus, "to nobody." The subject of the verb is mel.
It makes sense to give the dative case used with the verb datur, right? That is what gives the "dative" case its name.

The form felle is the ablative form of fel used here with the preposition sine.

5. Nobilitare potest virtus, doctrina coronat.
Excellence can ennoble (you); learning crowns (you).
nobili-TA-re potest virtus, doc-TRI-na co-RO-nat.

You have two new verbs in this saying, but they are both related to words you have seen before.

The word nobilitare is the infinitive form of the word nobilitat, "makes noble, ennobles," from the adjective nobilis. The infinitive is being used here with the verb potest.

The verb coronat you can recognize from the noun corona.

Here's a recap: