Saturday, May 4, 2024

24.04.24: 3rd declension adjectives [6]; suffix: -vowel + bilis, -e

Lines from the Codex Buranus:

O Fortuna │Oh Fortune

velut luna │Like the moon

statu variabilis… │ changeable in state

vita detestabilis │detestable life

…rota tu volubilis │ turning wheel (changeable in terms of fate)

… semper dissolubilis │ always ‘dissoluble’ (always fading to nothing)

[i] All 3rd declension adjectives of 2 terminations end in -is / -e and a significant proportion of them end in the suffix: vowel [mainly -ā- or -i-] + bilis [m/f] / -bile [n] which is formed usually from verbs and denotes ‘worthy of’; the Latin suffix is reflected in English derivatives. [image #1]

[ii] The English suffix –(i /a)ble was added to words which were not of Latin origin, but the meaning of the Latin suffix from which –(i/a)ble was derived was retained. [image #2] 






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