Dialogue 2
A: dā mihi veniam,
dominula, estne supermercātus in propinquō? │ Excuse me, Miss,
is there a supermarket nearby?
B: ita est. illīc
contrā argentāriam. │ Yes, there is. Over there, opposite the bank.
A: estne etiam pharmacopōla
in propinquō? │ Is there also a pharmacist nearby?
B: ibi prope
supermercātum. │ There, near the supermarket.
[1]
From this post and
the previous one:
- dominus, -ī [2/m]: master
- domina, -ae [1/f]: mistress
These are both
standard Classical Latin words for those who were in charge of a household.
[i] domine:
“sir” like Fr. monsieur; Gmn. mein Herr; vocative of dominus (master);
very common in Mediaeval writing e.g. Grātiās tibi agō, domine i.e.
without necessarily implying ‘master’.
[ii] dominula, -ae [1/f]: this is an example of using (very rare) Classical Latin to convey contemporary ideas
- dominulus, ī [2/m]: a little lord
- dominula, -ae [1/f]: a young mistress
-ul- indicates a diminutive
i.e. a smaller version of the original noun. Here dominula is being used
to express “Miss”; Fr. mademoiselle
[2]
pharmacopōla; supermercātus
These two nouns
show two different ways in which Neo-Latin conveys contemporary ideas:
[i] The term pharmacopōla,
-ae [1/m] in Classical Latin referred to somebody who sold medicines,
i.e. in the dialogue the question is not being asked about the place but
the person: Is there a pharmacist nearby?
A reasonable
translation of the place using Classical Latin words would be:
taberna, -ae [1/f]
pharmaceutica
Neo-Latin also
uses offīcina, -ae [1/f] specifically to refer to a pharmacy although
its original meaning was a shop where goods were manufactured. The word was
later used to refer to a laboratory.
[ii] supermercātus is a clear example of a
Neo-Latin coinage i.e. super + mercātus
mercātus, -ūs [4/m]: market; market place, a near
synonym for macellum, -ī [2/n]: grocery store; market place
super- in Classical Latin can be a preposition or
adverb or prefix with the general meaning of ‘above’, but was never used in the
contemporary sense here i.e. a ‘super’ / large-scale market. While the term supermercātus
is comprehensible, it is not listed in the neo-Latin lexicon although others
with super- are used in the same way:
https://neolatinlexicon.org/latin/grocery_store_supermarket/
It is listed here:
https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermercatus
However, it is not
commonly attested in reliable sources. Although I am not dismissing supermercātus
as “wrong”, I would say that macellum, -ī [2/n] is sufficient
to convey a place selling food items.
[3] illīc: over there, often, as the image shows, with the idea of indicating something at a distance
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