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an adjective, is of doubtful gender, though the feminine is perhaps prefera ble. Bidens, a fork, is masculine; but when it signifies "a sheep two years old" it is feminine, ovis being understood. The plural torrentia, from torrens, occurs in Curtius, ix., 35, and must be explained by supplying flumina, torrens being properly an adjective. A few participles used as substantives in philosophical language are neuters; as, ens, accidens, consequens. Animans, being properly a participle, occurs in all three genders; but, according to the practice of Cicero, it is generally feminine in the sense of "a living being," and masculine in the sense of "a rational creature." (See Schneider, Formenlehre, p. 126, fol.)

CHAPTER XIX.

GENDER OF WORDS OF THE THIRD DECLENSION.-NEUTERS.

[§ 79.] WORDS ending in a, e, i, y, c, l, n, t, ar, ur, us are neuter; e. g., poëma, mare, sināpi, misy, lac and alec, animal, mel, carmen, flumen, caput (the only word of this termination), calcar, pulvinar, fulgur, guttur, opus, tempus.

1. Exceptions in l.-The following are masculine: sol, sal, and mugil, which form is more common than mugilis. Sal, in the singular, is sometimes found as a neuter, but in the plural the ancients use only sales, both in the sense of "salt" and in the more common one of "witticisms." Salia, in the sense of "different kinds of salt," is only a modern medical term.

2 Exceptions in n.-There are only three Latin words in en which are masculine, viz., pecten, pectinis, ren and lien (or lienis); the others in en are of Greek origin; e. g., attagen, lichen, and splen. Delphin (commonly delphinus), paean, agon, canon, gnomon, horizon, and the names of mountains in on; as, Cithaeron, Helicon, are likewise masculines. The following in on are feminine: aëdon, halcyon (Lat. alcedo), icon, and sindon; and, according to the general rule, all the Greek names of towns, with a few exceptions, such as Marathon, which is more frequently masculine.

3. Exceptions in ar.-Par is common in the sense of 66 mate,' " but neuter in the sense of " a pair." 4. Exceptions in ur.-Astur, turtur, vultur, and furfur are masculine.

5. Exceptions in us.-All words of two or more syllables which retain the u in the genitive, that is, which end in ūtis or ūdis, are feminine; e. g., juventus, salus, senectus, servitus, virtus; incus, palus, and subscus; also,

tellus, telluris, and pecus, pecudis, a sheep, whereas pecus, pecoris (neut.), signifies "cattle" in general. Venus, Veneris, the name of a goddess, is naturally feminine; but it retains the same gender in the sense of "gracefulness" (generally in the plural). Respecting the names of animals in us, see above, § 42. Lepus and mus are masculine; grus and sus are feminine when the particular sex is not to be specified. Of Greek words in us, tripus, tripodis, is masculine; apus and lagopus are feminine, perhaps only because avis is understood. Rhus, as a tree, is feminine; as a seed or spice, masculine.

CHAPTER XX.

FOURTH DECLENSION.

[§ 80.] THE fourth declension is only a particular species of the third, which has arisen from contraction and elision. The nominative of masculine and feminine words ends in us, and of neuters in u. The following is the form of their declension :

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The following words may be used as exercises: actus, coetus, cursus, gradus, lusus, magistratus, motus, sensus, sumptus, vultus: the only neuters are, genu, gelu, veru, pecu (the same as pecus, õris). Tonitrus and tonitruum, plur. tonitrua, are more commonly used than tonitru.

Formerly it was believed that the neuters in u were indeclinable in the singular, but recent investigations (es

pecially those of Freund, in an appendix to the preface to his Latin Dictionary) compel us to give up this opinion, especially with regard to the genitive; for it is only in late technical writers that we find, e. g., cornu cervinum and cornu bubulum making the genitive without any termination of the first word: cornucervini, cornububuli. The dative ui is likewise mentioned by an ancient grammarian (Martian. Capella, lib. iii.), but there is no instance except cornu in Livy, xlii., 58, which must be looked on as a contraction of cornui.

[$81.] Note 1.-The genitive of the words in us was originally uis, which was afterward contracted into us. Instances of the ancient form are still found in our authors; as, anuis in Terence. Sometimes, on the other hand, the genitive of words in us was i, after the second declension, which is still found now and then, as well as us, not only in comic writers, but in good prose, e. g., senati and tumulti in Sallust. The dative in u instead of ui is still more frequent, especially in Cæsar, who is said by Gellius (iv., 19) to have sanctioned this form exclusively; e. g., equitatu, magistratu, usu, for equitatui, &c.; it is, however, found also in a few passages of other writers.

[§ 82.] Note 2.-Some words make the dative and ablative plural in ubus instead of ibus. They are contained in the following two hexameters: Arcus, acus, portus, quercus, ficus, lacus, artus,

Et tribus et partus, specus, adde veruque pecuque,

But it must be observed, that instead of ficubus a better form is ficis, from, ficus, i (see 97), and that arcubus and quercubus, though mentioned by ancient grammarians, do not occur in other writers any more than arcibus, or quercibus. Portus has both forms, ubus and ibus, and tonitrus has more commonly tonitribus than tonitrubus.

[83.] Note 3.-Domus takes, in some of its cases, the forms of the second declension; but this is exclusively the case only in the genit. domi in the sense of "at home ;"* in the abl. domo in the sense of "from home;" and in the acc. plur. domos in the sense of "home," when several places are alluded to. In the other signification, the forms of the fourth declension prevail, though we find the ablat. domo, genit. plur. domorum, acc. plur. domos, along with domu (see Garatoni on Cic., Philip., ii., 18), do muum, and domūs (see my note on Cic. in Verr., iv., 4); but domo for domui seldom occurs.

GENDER OF WORDS OF THE FOURTH DECLENSION.

[§ 84.] The words in us are masculine. The following only are feminines: acus, domus, manus, porticus, tribus, and the plurals idus, iduum, and quinquatrus, quinquatru

um.

To these must be added colus, which, however, also follows the second declension. (See § 53 and 97.) The words anus, nurus, socrus, and quercus are feminine, according to the general rule, on account of their signification.

Note.-Penus, us (provisions), is feminine; but there are two other

* [Domi, "at home," is in fact not a genitive, but an old locative case Compare Anthon's Greek Prosody, p. 227, seq.]-Am. Ed.

forms of this word, one after the second declension, penum, 1, and the second after the third, penus, oris, both of which are neuter. Specus is most frequently masculine; but in the early language, and in poetry, it is found both as a feminine and as a neuter. In Valer. Maximus, i., 2, we have in quoddam praealtum specus for in quendam specum; but the reading is doubtful. Secus, when used for sexus, is neuter, but occurs only in the nominat. and accus. in the connexion of virile and muliebre secus. (Com pare $89.)

The few words in u are neuter, without exception.

CHAPTER XXI.

FIFTH DECLENSION.

[§ 85.] THE fifth declension, like the fourth,

may,

with

a few changes, be traced to the third. The nominative ends in ēs, and the declension is as follows:

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Note 1.-Only the three words dies, res, and species have their plural complete; and Cicero condemned even specierum and speciebus as not being Latin. The words acies, facies, effigies, series, and spes are found in good prose writers only in the nominative plur. (perhaps in the vocative also) and accus. plur.; the others have, from their signification, no plural.

Note 2.-The e in the termination of the genitive and dative singular is long when preceded by a vowel, as in diei, maciēi, but short in spei, common in fidei and rei.

Note 3.-An old termination of the genitive was es (contracted from eïs), but is not found in our authors, except in the word Diespiter = Diei pater. But there are several instances of ē and i being used for the ei of the genitive and dative. The è for the genitive occurs very frequently in poetry (Virg., Georg., i., 208, die. Horat., Carm., iii., 7, 4; Ovid, Metam., iii., 341, and vii., 728, fide); and also in some passages of Cicero, Cæsar, and Sal lust; e. g., pernicie causa (some write pernici), in Cic., pro Rosc. Am., 45. In sinistra parte acie in Cæs., Bell. Gall., ii,, 23, and several times in Sallust. Instances of the dative ending in e occur in Horace, Serm., i., 3, 95, commissa fide; and in Livy, v., 13, insanabili pernicie nec causa nec finis inveniebatur. The dative in occurs in Nepos, Thrasyb., 2: pernicii fuit; and the genitive in i appears in Livy, ii., 42, in the connexion of tribuni plebi for plebei (plebes plebs).

GENDER OF WORDS OF THE FIFTH DECLENSION.

[§ 86.] The words of the fifth declension are feminine, with the exception of dies, which is mascul. and femin. in the singular, and masculine only in the plural. The compound meridies is masculine only, but does not occur in the plural, as was remarked above,

G

Note.-Good prose writers make the singular of dies much more fre quently masculine than feminine. The latter gender, generally speaking is used only when dies denotes duration or length of time, and in the sense of a fixed or appointed day. Thus we find certa, constituta, praestituta, dicta, finita dies, but also stato die.

CHAPTER XXII.

IRREGULAR DECLENSION.-INDECLINABLES.

-DEFECTIVES.

[§ 87.] THE irregularities in the declension of substantives may be comprised under two general heads: A. Indeclinables and defectives; B. Heteroclita and heterogenea.

A. Some substantives have a defective declension, inasmuch as they have either no terminations at all to mark the different cases (indeclinables), or want particular cases, or even a whole number (defectives).

I. Indeclinables, or words which retain the same form in all cases, are chiefly the names of the letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets, e. g., alpha, beta, gamma, digamma, delta, iota, a, c, v, &c. It is only late and unclassical authors that decline the Greek names in a. Delta, as a name of a country, is likewise indeclinable; but it is found only in the nomin. and accus. Farther, a number of foreign words, such as git, manna, pascha, and a few Greek substantives in i and y, such as gummi and misy, which, however, occurs also as a declinable word (see § 55); and besides the indeclinable gummi there exist other declinable forms also, e. g., haec gummis, hoc gumma, and hoc gumen. Hebrew proper names, which differ in their terminations from Greek and Latin words, are either not declined at all, as Bethleem, Gabriel, Ruth, or they take a Latin termination in the nominative also, e. g., Abrahamus, Jacobus, Josephus, Juditha. David and Daniel are the only names which, without taking any termination in the nominative,* make the genitive Davidis and Danielis. Others, as Joannes, Moses, Judas, Maria, have already acquired, through the Greek, a declinable termination, and are accordingly declined after the first or third declension. Jesus makes the accusat. Jesum, but in the other cases it remains unchanged, Jesu.

* [Modern writers of Latin verse, however, give Dāvides as a form for the nominative. Compare Hodgson (Provost of Eton), Sacred History for Latin Verse, p. 95.]—Am. Ed.

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