Saturday, May 4, 2024

16.04.24: weather; vocabulary [3]; the fifth – and last - declension

arcus, -ūs [4/m] pluvius: rainbow

tonitrus, -ūs [4/m]: thunder

The first thing to note is that, in “percentage” terms, there are far fewer nouns in the 4th and 5th declension than in the other three; you can see that just by looking at the weather vocabulary in the two previous posts.

The fourth declension was covered in detail in recent posts, and so now we come to a milestone: the fifth declension - and the last one.

glaciēs, -ēī [5/f]: ice

Also:

dīluviēs, -ēī [5/f]: flood; deluge; English derivative: ante-diluvian (Biblical) before the (Genesis) flood; also used to describe extremely old-fashioned ideas

intemperiēs, -ēī [5/f]: immoderate rains; tempest; storm; English derivative: intemperate language i.e. language that lacks moderation; intemperate weather i.e. severe

temperiēs, -ēī [5/f]: moderate temperature; English derivative: temperate climate i.e. one without extremes

There are very few 5th declension nouns. I’ve listed the ones that I think are most common. All 5th declension nouns are feminine apart from [i] diēs (day) which, depending on context, may also be masculine, and [ii] meridiēs [masculine]

diēs, -ēi [5/m or f]: day

mēridiēs, -ēi [5/m]: midday; noon; south

aciēs, -ēī [5/f]: keenness; edge; line of battle

faciēs, -ēī [5/f]: shape; form; figure; face

effigiēs, -ēī [5/f]: image; likeness; effigy

glaciēs, -ēī [5/f]: ice

perniciēs, -ēī [5/f]: disaster; ruin

plānitiēs, -ēī [5/f]: plain; plateau

rabiēs, -ēī [5/f]: rage; madness

speciēs, -ēī [5/f]: sight; look(s); appearance

superficiēs, -ēī [5/f]: surface

fidēs, -eī [5/f]: pledge; trust; faith

rēs, -eī [5/f]: thing; matter; event

spēs, -eī [5/f]: hope

bona fide: genuine, without deception < Latin bonā fidē: in good faith

prima facie: (Law) enough to establish a fact unless disproved < Latin prīmā faciē: at first sight

The images posted show the common feature of derivatives; the original Latin words can have a range of related meanings whereas the derivatives tend to be very specific.

PS: I just realised that one of the images posted looks a bit like Meghan Markle: it isn't










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