Some words have historical connections or specific meanings pertaining to Ancient Rome, or there are memorable examples of them in the literature.
Idūs [4/f] (plural only):
the ides; in the Roman calendar the fifteenth day of March, May, July, October,
and the thirteenth day of the other months.
“Beware the Ides of March”
was the Soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play. If it was
actually said, Caesar paid no attention, because on the Ides of March 44BC he
was stabbed to death in the Theatre of Pompey by as many as 60 conspirators
including his associates Brutus and Cassius.
There may never have been a
soothsayer, but there is no doubt that Caesar was assassinated on March 15th
since a commemorative coin was issued by Brutus two years later.
The words EID MAR are
abbreviations for EIDIBVS MARTIIS ‘on the Ides of March’ and the coin has
representations of the weapons used by Brutus and Cassius in addition to an
image of a pil(l)eus, a felt cap given to freed slaves, and
symbolic of the liberty won through the death of Caesar.
And ULUlātus, -ūs [4/m]
is an example of an onomatopoetic word ie. one that reflects
the sound being made, here ‘hOWLing’
No comments:
Post a Comment