Chapter 32

RULE 1: Adverb endings:
1) positive = -ê (I/II), -iter (III);
2) comparative = -ius;
3) superlative = -issimê (irregular forms = -rimê, -limê).

I. Grammar

A. Adverbs

Lacking case endings, Latin adverbs are generally easier to learn than nouns and adjectives. The only endings to be memorized are cited above in Rule 1, though it’s important to remind students of the “irregular” forms already covered in the comparison of adjectives, such as superlatives ending in -rimus and -limus and comparatives like plus and melior. These forms will generate “irregular” adverbs as well.

Go through Wheelock, page 152, with the students. With few new forms, this chapter provides an excellent opportunity to consolidate the comparison of adjectives and review for Test 2 which follows this chapter.

B. The History of Latin Adverbs

The ending -ê is a frozen form of the ablative singular ending, originally -êd. The -ê was shortened in some iambic words, e.g. bene and male, see Chapter 30 (“iambic shortening”, s.v. primo).

The -ter ending may derive from the same source as the -ter suffix seen in dexter and alter, denoting a contrasted relationship, see propter, Chapter 5. Beginning in words like aliter, however, the contrastive sense was not felt, and from there the ending was extended without that sense to the general formation of adverbs, especially i-stem third-declension bases, though there are some exceptions (e.g. audacter).

The comparative adverb preserves an archaic adverb formation, a neuter accusative noun/adjective as an internal accusative of the verb: “He did good things” extended to “He did well.” Many adverbs in Latin and Greek originated as neuter accusative substantives, e.g. Greek proton, mega, mallon, polla, alla, malista; Latin primum, secundum, verum, multa, cetera, quia.

C. Volo

******STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING MALO AND NOLO ALSO.******
The full forms of volo, malo and nolo are found in Wheelock on pp. 392-394.

To a lesser degree than with fero but still to some extent, some linguistics can make these verbs seem less “irregular.”

1. Volo derives from *wel, an athematic verb, i.e. a verb which does not take a thematic vowel such as esse and Greek -mi verbs.
2. Vult (older volt) and vultis (voltis) are the regular products of athematic conjugation: *vel- + -ti and *vel- + -te-s (for the inherited personal endings, see Chapter 1).
3. Volunt, volumus and volo show contamination with thematic forms.
4. Vis derives from a different base (“composite conjugation,” see Chapter 31), *wei-, seen also in invitus. The expected athematic form of the second singular, *vel-si, should become vel(l) and may in fact be represented by the adverb vel (“perhaps”), with vel . . . vel becoming in classical Latin “either . . . or”.
5. The present subjunctive of volo uses the vel- base with the subjunctive marker -i- inherited from the Indo-European optative (see Chapter 29).
6. The imperfect subjunctive = vel- + -sê- (see Chapter 29).
7. Nolo is the contraction of *ne-volo, probably via *novolo, and malo is that of *mag(i)s-volo. The uncontracted forms non vis, non vult and non vultis—and, by analogy, mavis, mavult and mavultis—prevailed over contracted forms for unknown reasons.
8. Only nolo has an imperative, noli(te), which is used in polite negative commands: noli prohibere me!
9. Of participles, all three verbs exhibit only the present active. All have regular perfect forms, and none have passives.

Click here for a review sheet covering verb forms (Chapters 28-32).

II. Vocabulary

• divitiae: The noun is plural, cf. English riches.
• exercitus: = ex- + arc- (“shut up, ward off,” cf. arceo, Greek arkein) + -(i)tus (common noun suffix, e.g. cantus, adventus). Therefore, it means originally “a thing/means for warding off” and later assumed a sense of “drive forth > keep busy > train,” perhaps from the “training” of oxen to the plow.
• honor: This noun means “public office” (cf. cursus honorum) as well as the obvious derivative meaning “honor,” the acclaim often concomitant with holding public office. Originally the base was honos- (genitive *honoses) but by rhotacism became honor- (genitive honoris). Then by a process called “analogical levelling,” the nominative honos which should not have rhotacized became honor on the analogy of the other forms of the word, cf. arbos > arbor (on the analogy of rhotacized arboris), cf. English roofs, hoofs (instead of *rooves, *hooves) on analogy to the singular. The original -s is still manifest in honestus, which is based on honor but is seen as a different word and therefore not subject to analogical levelling (cf. arbustum from arbor).

***ADD MALO, MALLE, MALUI: “prefer, incline toward”***

• custodia: In the plural, it means “guards.”
• lex: Palmer, The Latin Language (25-6): “the word for the single ordinances the collection of which constitutes ius.” Lex may have come from either of two verb bases: leg- (“pick, choose”) or *legh- (“lie, lay”) which is cognate with English law.
• dives: This adjective exhibits two bases: divit- or dit-. Comparable to the wider loss of digamma in Greek, the loss of -vi- is seen in some Latin words, e.g. latrina vs. lavatrina. With the loss of -v-, the nominative singular becomes dis or Dis, the deity of death as a god of wealth (cf. Pluto (Greek ploutus), presumably because gold, silver and other valuable resources come from underground, the realm given to Hades when Zeus, Poseidon and Hades divided the universe among themselves.
• pauper: The word is built on the base *pau-, cf. pauci, paulus; Greek pauros (“small, short”). The English cognate is few, as opposed to the derivative poor which comes into English from Italian povero (for the loss of w before r in English, cf. lord < “loaf-ward,” the man who guarded [-ward = “protected, kept”] the bread and doled it out). In origin, Latin pauper is an agricultural word meaning “bearing little,” see puto, Chapter 25.
• par: It is a third-declension adjective, therefore i-stem (ablative singular pari, neuter nominative/accusative plural paria, genitive plural parium).
• pateo: Coming from the Indo-European base *pot-/*pet-/*pt- (the various grade of the base), pateo carries a sense of opening, hence “to lie open”; cf. Greek petalos (“leaf”) and, by Grimm’s Law (p > f, t > th), English fathom (literally, “the length made by the open/outstretched arms”).
• prohibeo: = pro- (“in front”) + habeo (“hold, keep”). Note that prohibeo takes the accusative + infinitive to mean “prevent someone (accusative) from doing something (infinitive).” Wheelock includes this all-important information in note 6 on page 153.

III. Review for Test 2