First, neuter nouns of the 3rd declension fall, for the most part, into easily recognized subtypes. There are two reasons for pointing out this fact. Their gender, in every instance, is NEUTER, as opposed to the MASCULINE and FEMININE 3rd declension words that we’ve seen so far. Once you feel familiar with Table 3.1, turn to the next group of 3rd declension nouns. As we progress through the course, we’ll come to understand the links in form between Latin mort– and English mortify or immortality, between Latin urb– and English suburban or conurbation. To repeat, it is the BASE forms like leg-, ped-, and hospit– that will play a key role in word derivation, both in Latin and in English. Spelled like its original Latin source-word, English crux (plural cruces) means a “problem” or “critical point.” Most of the other nominative forms, however, are of little use to us. & F.) labor, laborisĪs we saw above, it really isn’t necessary to list two forms for labor or finis, since these bases are predictable but the second (genitive) form is needed for all the other words. Table 3.1 LATIN THIRD DECLENSION NOUNS (M. In our tabular word lists, 3rd declension nouns will be presented in this fashion: It is not enough to know that the Latin word for “king” is rex we must know also that the base of this word is reg-, if we are to recognize regal as an adjective that means “kingly.” The base reg-, in fact, is considerably more important to us than the nominative form rex. Similar to finis are civis (“citizen”), hostis (“enemy”), testis (“witness”), vestis (“garment”), and navis (“ship”).īy and large, however, when we are learning a 3rd declension noun-even only for purposes of English word derivations-we must learn TWO FORMS of that noun. For a noun like finis (“end”), we merely remove the -is ending to get the base fin. There is another subtype of the third declension where the base of the word can be regularly inferred from the nominative form. As a general subtype, the Latin – or noun is a particularly easy form, since the NOMINATIVE AND THE WORD BASE ARE IDENTICAL. We’ll see more of groups 2 and 3 when we deal later with the Latin verb. Group 3, a list that could be greatly extended, consists of AGENT NOUNS-that is, they identify the person performing a verbal action. For historical reasons, the parallel words in group 2 keep their original Latin form even in British spelling. The abstract nouns in group 1 are traditionally spelled – our in English, reflecting their French transmission but ever since the reforms of the great lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843), they have been spelled – or in American usage.
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