Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #210: Vult and mavult

The focus for today's lesson is more about the irregular verb volo which you saw yesterday, along with the compounds mavolo (= magis volo) and nolo (= non volo).

Today you will learn the 3rd-person form: vult, "wants, is willing, will." There is also a compound form, mavult, "wants more, prefers" (= magis vult).

For nolo, the 3rd-person form is just non vult. You actually saw that in one of the sayings yesterday: Nolo parum, nimium non volo: sat mihi sat.

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

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Spiritus flat ubi vult.
(The) Spirit blows where (it) wants.
SPI-ritus flat ubi vult.

The word spiritus is from the verb spirat, "breathe." The basic meaning of spiritus is "breath, breathing," but of course it later took on new meanings in the Christian tradition, giving us English "spirit," and also "Spirit," a person of the Holy Trinity. You can read more about the history of this word at Wikipedia: Spirit.

This phrase is a variation on the Gospel of John: Spiritus ubi vult spirat.

2. Vult et non vult piger.
(The) lazy (man) wants and doesn’t want.
vult et non vult piger.

You already know all the words in this saying!

Here you can see how the verb nolo has non vult as the 3rd-person form.

The idea is that a lazy person does want things, vult, but because he is not willing to do the work, non vult.

This saying also comes from the Bible, this time from the Hebrew Bible's Book of Proverbs. The King James Version reads: 'The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing."

3. Asinus stramen mavult quam aurum.
(A) donkey wants straw more-than gold.
A-sinus stramen mavult quam aurum.

The word stramen is a neuter noun, so it is the same form in both nominative and accusative; in this sentence, it is accusative because it is the object of the verb mavult: The donkey wants straw, asinus mavult stramen.

The donkey wants that straw more than, quam, the donkey wants gold, aurum, another neuter noun in the accusative.
Do you think the donkey is foolish? This kind of saying is meant to make fun of the donkey, as if the donkey doesn't realize the value of gold... but you can't eat gold!

4. Nemo feli tintinnabulum annectere vult.
Nobody is-willing to-tie (the) bell (onto the) cat.
nemo feli tintin-NA-bulum an-NEC-tere vult.

Here the verb vult takes a complementary infinitive, vult annectere, "wants to die." The root of that word is nexus, "binding, joining."

The word tintinnabulum, "bell," is a neuter noun, so it could be nominative or accusative here; it's accusative because it is the object of the infinitive: to tie on the bell, annectere tintinnabulum. You can see this same Latin root in the medical term "tinnitus."

The word feli is the dative form of the noun feles, "for the cat, to the cat, onto the cat."

This saying was turned into an Aesop's fable, Belling the Cat. The idea is that the mice want to put a bell on the cat... but none of the mice will do it!

5. Ieiunus venter non vult cantare libenter.
(An) empty stomach isn’t willing to-sing gladly.
ie-IU-nus venter non vult can-TA-re li-BEN-ter.

The word venter is a masculine 3rd-declension noun, "stomach." You can see this Latin word in "ventriloquism," speaking-from-the-stomach.

The masculine adjective ieiunus, "empty, fasting," which gives us English "jejune," meaning empty in a metaphorical sense, insipid, without substance.
The adverb libenter means "gladly, happily," and it is related to the Latin word libido, which gives us English "libido."
In other words: food first! If you are hungry, nothing else is going to go well, especially performing on command.

As you can guess from the internal rhyme, venter-libenter, this is a medieval Latin proverb.

Here's a recap: