Proverbs/Grammar ~ Grammar/Proverbs: Latin Lesson #232: Spiritus sayings

The focus for today's lesson is the 4th-declension noun, spiritus. Remember: these 4th-declension nouns look like the familiar 2nd-declension nouns in the nominative, spiritus, and the accusative, spiritum. But in the other cases, they look different than 2nd-declension nouns. For example, the genitive form is spiritus! Yes, the nominative spiritus and genitive spiritus are spelled the same but, to the ancient Roman ear, they sounded different because the genitive -ūs ending has a long vowel: spīritūs. Since the words are written in the same way, that means you have to decide each time from context whether spiritus is nominative or genitive, as you will see in today's sayings.

You will also see the ablative form of spiritus, which is spiritu.

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

And here are today's proverbs:

1. Veni, creator spiritus!
Come, creator spirit!
veni, cre-A-tor SPI-ritus!

The word spiritus here is in the nominative case; it is the "you" that is the subject of the verb veni.

You have not seen the Latin word creator before, but this is a word we used in English too, "creator." You have also seen the Latin word for "creation," creatio.

These words are from one of the most famous hymns of the Middle Ages; you can see the rest of the lyrics at Wikipedia: Veni, creator spiritus!

2. Nutrimentum spiritus liber.
(A) book (is) nourishment of-the-spirit.
nutri-MEN-tum SPI-ritus liber.

The word spiritus here is in the genitive case, with the word nutrimentum: a book is the nutrimentum, "food," spiritus (spīritūs), "of the soul."

You haven't seen this noun, nutrimentum, before, but you have seen the verb it comes from: nutrit.

You can see these words at the entrance to the Alte Bibliothek (Old Library) of Berlin!

3. Spiritus promptus, caro vero infirma.
(The) spirit (is) ready; (the) flesh in-fact (is) weak.
SPI-ritus promptus, caro vero in-FIR-ma.

The word spiritus here is in the nominative case; it is the subject of the implied verb, est. The word caro is also in the nominative case, and each of these words has a predicative adjective.

The spirit is promptus, "ready, quick, brave," as opposed to the infirma, "un-strong, weak," flesh. The word spiritus is masculine, so promptus is masculine; the word caro is feminine, so infirma is feminine.

The words come from the Gospel of Mark.

4. Absens corpore sed praesens spiritu.
Absent in-body but present in-spirit.
absens COR-pore sed praesens SPI-ritu.

The point of this saying is the contrast between absens, "away+being," i.e. "absent," as opposed to praesens, "in-front+being," i.e. "present." The paradox is the idea that one could be absent in body, corpore, the ablative form of corpus, but at the same time present in spirit, spiritu, which is the ablative form of spiritus.

These words also come from the 1 Corinthians in the Bible.

5. Littera occidit; Spiritus autem vivificat.
(The) letter kills; (the) Spirit, however, gives-life.
LIT-tera oc-CI-dit; SPI-ritus autem vi-VI-ficat.

The word spiritus here is in the nominative case; it is the subject of the verb vivificat. You haven't seen this verb before, but you have seen the verb vivit and the verb facit. This new verb combines those two roots: "makes alive, gives life."

So, the spirit gives life, but the "letter," littera, takes life away: it "kills," occidit.

These words, meanwhile, come from 2 Corinthians.

Here's a recap: