alligātor, alligatōris [3/m] (New Latin) alligator; the word
does exist in Classical Latin but means ‘one who ties / binds something’; the
English word is not derived from the original Latin noun although the English
spelling may be influenced by it. Modern English ‘alligator’ is from Spanish el
lagarto (the lizard) < La: lacertus, -ī [2/m] lizard.
Alligators are native to the Americas and China, but
‘crocodile’ is derived from Latin crocodīlus, -ī [2/m] which in turn came from
Greek κροκόδειλος (krokódeilos), and the Romans were well aware of them!
The images show [1] an Egyptian hieroglyph of a crocodile
from the River Nile [2] the Temple of Kom Ombo in the Nile dedicated to Sobek,
the crocodile God of Ancient Egypt [3] The Egyptian God Sobek and [4] and [5]
representations of the crocodile in Roman art, the first one showing the
crocodile lurking at the hull of the ship.
multus, -a, -um : (sg.) much (pl.) many
Multī nōn credunt │ Many (people)
don’t believe (it).
… versantur multī alligātōrēs. │ …there
are many alligators.
multum (adverb): a lot
Volō enim multum ambulāre │ For I want to
walk a lot
nōnnūllus, -a, -um: some
Vīdī nōnnūllōs alligātōrēs │ I saw some alligators.
nūllus, -a, -um: no; not any
Nūllī versantur in terrā. │ None are
on the land.
sōlus, -a, -um: alone
sōlum (adverb): only
Ergō sōlum vīdī partem capitis │ Therefore,
I only saw part of the head
tōtus, -a, -um: all in the sense of ‘the whole’
tōtum corpus │ the whole body
[1] calidus, -a, um: hot (note: not callidus,
-a, -um: cunning)
[2] nōmen, nōminis [3/n]: name; here the noun is in the
ablative case – nōmine - to express by the name of i.e. called
[3] Sī eōs vidēbō ¦ [2] vōbīs ostendam. │
[1] If I see them, ¦ [2] I’ll show you. This point
has come up before. Note the use of the future tense in the ‘if’ clause (in
grammar: the conditional clause) in Latin i.e. literally: if I will see
them ¦ I’ll show you. English and Latin match in the second part of the
sentence, but not the first.
_______
It is tempting to dig deeper with [4] and [5] below but,
from my own experience, I wouldn’t do that yet. To be able to have a firm grasp
of these two concepts involves study of other features of the language which,
in terms of a structured approach to learning Latin, are still a bit further
down the road.
Vincent uses two structures in the video that need
considerable study.
[4] For the moment, note these four verbs:
[ī] versor, versārī: live; stay; be somewhere
[iī] fruor, fruī: enjoy
[iīī] loquor, loquī: talk
[iv] queror, querī: complain
These four verbs are known as deponent verbs
and are constructed differently from the verbs discussed so far in the group.
To be able to deal with them involves deeper knowledge of Latin passive verbs.
Passive verbs have been looked at – briefly – but it is better to wait until
the passive is dealt with more extensively.
However, if you do want to know more about them at this
stage, this link will give you information:
https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/101/Deponent.pdf
[5] Venīte mēcum ¦ ad eōs spectandōs. │ Come
with me ¦ to look at them.
This cannot be explained neatly in a sentence and so, like
[4] above, simply note the following:
spectandus, -a, -um: this literally means ‘which is
to be looked at’. It’s an unusual construction in Latin known as the gerundive
and meaning X is to be Y-ed e.g. Hic liber legendus est. This
book needs to be read. The closest we have in English is, for
example, “That wall needs to be painted / needs painting” or “That problem is
for you to solve.” Latin, however, can use this to express purpose. Vincent is
literally saying “Come with me ¦ to them that need to be looked at” which is
reworked in translation as “Come with me to look at them.”
If you want to know more about this construction now you can
use the following link and look at Part II:
https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/101/GerundGerundive.pdf
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