Chapter 16

RULE 1: Third-declension adjectives are i-stem.

I. Grammar

There is little new in this chapter. Third-declension adjectives are formed in accordance with the rules for i-stem nouns, with one important exception: the ablative singular of all genders of third-declension adjectives is -i, whereas -e is the ablative singular for masculine/feminine i-stem nouns.

Focus, then, not on formation but on the agreement between third-declension adjectives and first/second declension nouns. Review carefully with students the examples at the bottom of page 76 and use the worksheet provided here to reinforce the ways in which third-declension adjectives agree with first/second declension nouns.

A. The History of I-Stem Adjectives

The variable number of nominative endings in this system of adjectives stems from a variety of linguistic processes:

1. In the -r-stems (e.g. acer, celer), syncope is responsible for changing *acris (masculine nominative singular) to acer. But acris was never entirely lost in Latin and on the analogy of first/second declension r-stem adjectives (like pulcher/pulchra/pulchrum and ruber/rubra/rubrum), acer later came to be used to create a distinction between the masculine nominative singular (acer) and the feminine nominative singular (acris). The result was three-termination adjectives in the third declension.
2. In the -nt-stems (potens, sapiens), the original feminine nominative singular form ending in -is was drawn into the common i-stem class (e.g. *ferentis > ferens), resulting in one-termination third declension adjectives.
3. In forms ending -s/-x (e.g. dives, felix, senex), the neuter nominative singular borrowed the nominative form of the other genders. The reason for this is not entirely clear, but it created another species of one-termination adjective in the third declension.

II. Vocabulary

[Stress the declensional system to which each adjective belongs.]

• aetas: The Indo-European base *aiv- produced both Latin aevum ("eternity, time") and Greek aiôn ("age, period of time"—Greek regularly exhibits a loss of digamma, the w-sound). Originally *aivitas, aetas was created by syncope.
• memoria: This word was formed by adding the abstract-noun suffix -ia to the adjective memor which is based on the reduplicated verb stem, memin- ("to remember") which is related to moneo and mens.
• beatus: Originally meaning "blessed by the gods," this adjective came later to mean "happy, fortunate." [Beo, beare ("to bless") is possibly connected with bonus.]
• celer: Does not contract!
• difficilis: As the negative of facilis (dis- + facilis), difficilis shows the same sort of vowel gradation seen in facio when it goes into compound (facio > afficio).
• dulcis: Cognate with Greek glukus, this adjective can mean "sweet" in taste, appearance or behavior. Linguists call the process, seen in this word, of extending or transferring the meaning of a word from one sense to another "synaesthesia."
• iuvo: One of the very few first-conjugation verbs with irregular forms (perfect = iûvi; perfect passive participle = iûtum [but the future active participle is regular, iuvaturus]), cf. seco (secui), domo (domui). In no particular form are the present and perfect tenses exactly identical, although sometimes their differences can be quite subtle: iuvat vs. iûvit. Therefore, the long vowel in the perfect stem cannot be deemed absolutely mandatory, but you should point out to students that the present stem differs from the perfect stem in that the former has a short u and the latter a long u. This accords with other verbs which lengthen the root vowel to form the perfect (linquo > liqui, video > vîdi, lego > lêgi). The difference in meaning between iuvo and adiuvo is negligible; iuvo takes the meaning "delight, please, gratify" more pervasively than adiuvo. The third-person impersonal use of iuvat ("it is pleasing") is quite common in Latin: forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit (Aeneid 1.203.). If students don't know them already, you might introduce the English derivatives, adjuvant and adjutant (the latter being based on adiuto, the frequentitive of adiuvo) which, granted, do more to build English than Latin vocabulary but at the same time can assist in reinforcing the meaning of iuvo in the students' minds.
• femina: Meaning literally "she who gives suck," femina builds on the base fe-, cognate with Greek thê- (thêlus, "female"; thêlê, "nipple"), also seen in filius, fetus (literally "the thing suckled," cf. English suckling) and fecundus ("abounding in suckling"; later, "rich in productivity"). In another sense, the fe- base renders a sexual connotation: fellator and fellatio. The ending -mina is a rare instance in Latin of the Indo-European middle participle, a form seen widely in Greek (-menos). In Latin -mina shows up also in alumnus (literally "he who nourishes"), exhibiting the zero-grade (i.e. having no vowel) of the suffix. The -menos ending may also lie behind the second-person plural passive ending, -mini. Some Roman authors use feminabus in the dative/ablative plural, cf. deabus, filiabus (Chapter 10).
• quam: Originally formed from the interrogative-relative stem, this adverb means literally "in what way, to what degree." It is frequently found in compound (priusquam, antequam, tamquam, quamvis, quamquam, quasi < *quamsi [cf. English "as if"]).

III. Sentences

Practice and Review

4. It is a common pattern in Latin that, when a noun does double duty serving as the subject of both the main sentence and a subordinate clause, it is placed at the front of the sentence, rendering a common syntactic pattern in Latin going something like this: "Cicero, when he (i.e. Cicero) left, he (i.e. Cicero) went to Greece." This is best rendered in English as "When Cicero left, he went to Greece."

6. Caelum is best taken as "air" here.

10. Themistocles, no doubt, hated his fellow citizens because he was ostracized, a fate not undeserved since he had ostracized so many of his political opponents including, among others, Aristides the Just.

IV. Quiz 6