CHAPTER XXIII.

IRREGULAR DECLENSION. HETEROCLITA.- HETEROGENEA.

[§ 97.] B. THE second kind of irregularity in the declension of substantives consists in too great an abundance of forms. It happens either that, although there is but one nominative, the other cases have two forms after different declensions, or that both the nominative, and all the other cases, have two different forms. If, owing to the different terminations, such a word has, at the same time, different genders, it is called a heterogenes; if it has merely different forms, it is called a heterocliton. It must, however, be observed that there are only very few words in which the practice of good prose does not give preference to one of the forms, and in the following list we shall always put the preferable form first.

Forms of different declensions are found with the word jugĕrum; for, besides the ablative sing. and plur. jūgero and jugeris, poets, for metrical reasons, use jugere and jugeribus. Some names of trees in us, viz., cupressus, ficus, laurus, pinus, besides the forms of the second declension, also take those of the fourth in us and u, i. e., in the genit. and ablat. singular, and in the nom. and accus. plural, e. g., laurus (after the second and fourth declension), gen. lauri and laurus, dat. lauro, acc. laurum, voc. laure, abl. lauro and lauru. Nom. plur. lauri and laurus, gen. laurorum, dat. and abl. lauris, accus. lauros and laurus, voc. lauri. In other names of trees the second declension greatly predominates, except quercus, which follows the fourth entirely.* The same is the case with colus, a distaff; but the cases in i, orum, is, do not exist, perhaps only accidentally; for, according to the ancient grammarians, the word may follow both the second and fourth declensions. Respecting senatus, tumultus, gen. us and i, see § 81. Vas, vasis, a vessel, sometimes makes the genit. vasi, from vasum, which is not altogether out of use. The plural ilia has iliorum and iliis along with ilium and ilibus.

[Consult, on this subject, Priscian, p. 711 and 1264. Serv., ad Virg., Ecl., ii., 54. Bentley, ad Horat., Od., ii., 15, 5. Schneider, L. G., vol. iii., p. 472.]-Am. Ed.

[§ 98.] Words which have different forms in the nominative as well as other cases may follow the same declension in either case; as, balteus and balteum, callus and callum, clipeus and clipeum (especially a consecrated shield), carrus and carrum, commentarius and commentarium, cubitus and cubitum, pileum and pileus, baculum and baculus, palatum and palatus, jugulum and jugulus, catinus, catillus, and catinum, catillum; and some names of plants; as, lupinus and lupinum, papyrus and papyrum, porrum and porrus: or they follow different declensions; as,

Tonitrus, us (tonitru).

Fames, is, and requies, ētis, take the forms of the fifth declension: fames makes the ablat. fame, and requies has requiem and requiē, besides requietem and requiete. It is of comparatively frequent occurrence that substantives have different forms both of the first and fifth declensions;* as, barbaria, barbaries; luxuria, es; duritia, es; materia, es; mollitia, es; segnitia, es (the forms after the fifth declension commonly occur only in the nom., acc., and abl.), and that verbal substantives of the fourth declension have a second form in um, i, like the participle of the perfect; as, conatus and conatum, eventus and eventum, praetextus and praetextum, suggestus and suggestum.

[§ 99.] To this class belong those substantives which, in the plural, assume a different gender and a different form, in some instances, along with the regular one:

1. Masculines which in the plural become neuters: jocus, plur. joci and joca (of pretty equal authority, though joca is better established by the practice of Cicero); locus, plur. loci (generally passages in books or subjects for investigation and discussion=topics) and loca (in the common sense of "places," whence the difference is briefly expressed thus: loci librorum, loca terrarum). The poets use sibila for sibili; and of intubus and tartarus they make the plural intuba and tartara.

2. Feminines which in the plural become neuters: carbasus, a species of flax, plur. carbasi and carbasa, sails made of it; astrea, plur. astreae and astrea, orum; margarita, plur. margaritae, and in Tacitus also, margarita, orum.

3. The following neuters become (a) Masculines: coelum, coeli; siser, siseres; porrum (which is much more frequent in the singular than porrus), porri; (b) Feminines:

* [Bopp thinks that the è in the Latin fifth declension, as in almost every instance an i precedes it, has been changed from a by the influence of this i. This may serve, according to him, to explain why we have occasionally two forms for the nominative, one of the fifth and the other of the first declension; the latter of these will follow, therefore, the analogy of the Greek, and allow a to remain unaltered before i, as in copía. The Ionic form, on the other hand, follows the Zend; as, oopín.]—Âm. Ed.

delicium, deliciae; epulum, epulae; balneum, balneae (in the sense of a public bath balnea is more frequent); (c) Both masculines and neuters: rastrum, rastri and rastra; frenum, freni and frena.

CHAPTER XXIV.

NOUNS ADJECTIVE. TERMINATIONS.-DECLENSION.

[§ 100.] 1. THE noun adjective denotes a quality of a person or a thing, expressed either by a substantive or a pronoun. The participle is an adjective formed from a verb, and, as far as its form is concerned, is an adjective. An adjective has three genders, and can thus be joined with substantives of different genders. But there are only two classes of adjectives in which the three genders are indicated by three different terminations, namely, the adjectives and participles in us, a, um; such as bonus, bona, bonum; amatus, amata, amatum; and those in er, a, um; such as liber, libera, liberum; and the isolated satur, satura, saturum.

To these adjectives of three terminations the following thirteen in er, is, e must be added: acer, acris, acre; alacer, alacris, alacre; campester, campestris, campestre; celeber, celebris, celebre; celer, celeris, celere; equester, equestris, equestre; paluster, palustris, palustre; pedester, pedestris, pedestre; puter, putris, putre; saluber, salubris, salubre; silvester, silvestris, silvestre; terrester, terrestris, terrestre; volucer, volucris, volucre. Originally they had only two terminations, is for the masculine and feminine, and e for the neuter. The termination er for the masculine exclusively was afterward added to them; but as the termination is is not very often used in good prose for the masculine, it will be best to treat them as a class of adjectives which have three terminations for the three genders.

Note 1.-Ernesti, on Tacit., Annal., ii., in fin., goes too far in asserting that the masculine in is is not suited for prose. He himself quotes two passages from Tacitus for celebris, and one in the Auct. ad Herenn., ii., 4: locus celebris. Several others may be added from Curtius. In Cicero, De Divin., i., 57, we find annus salubris; and, in like manner, locus, ventus,

* The nominative freni, for which Schneider (Formenlehre, p. 476) has no authority, occurs in Curtius, iii., 34; vii., 40. Valer. Maxim,, ii., 9, 5; Seneca, de Ira, i., 7; Sil. Ital., i., 240.

effectus salubris in Celsus, i., 3; ii., 1; iii., 6; in Livy, xxvii., 1: tumultus equestris; xxix., 35: exercitus terrestris; and xxvii., 26: tumultus silvestris ; also collis and locus silvestris in Cæsar, Bell. Gall., ii., 18, vi., 34; vomitus acris in Celsus, viii., 4.

Note 2.-The names of the months September, October, November, December, also belong to this class of adjectives. As adjectives, however, they are defective, since the neuter never occurs, and the masculine and feminine scarcely in any other connexion than with mensis (masc.), Calendae, Nonae, and Idus. Horace uses libertate Decembri.

[§ 101.] 2. Other adjectives have in reality two forms, the one for the masculine and feminine in common (generis communis), and the other for the neuter. This class

consists of those in is, neut. e; as, levis (masc. and fem.), leve, and the comparatives in or (masc. and fem.), us (neut.); as, levior, levius.

Note. Some adjectives have a double form; one in us, a, um, the other

in is, e.

The forms acclivus, declivus, proclivus, and a few others not mentioned here, are but rarely used for acclivis, declivis, and proclivis.

[§ 102.] 3. All other adjectives have only one termination for all three genders; as, felix, prudens, anceps, sollers, pauper, dives, vetus, Arpinas. So, also, the present participles in ns; as, laudans, monens, legens, audiens. But all the adjectives of this class have the termination ia in the nom., acc., and voc. plural of the neuter gender. (Very few, and, properly speaking, only vetus, veteris, have the termination a, respecting which, see above, § 65.) E. g., felicia, prudentia, ancipitia, sollertia, laudantia. Opulens and violens are only different forms of opulentus, violentus.

Note 1.-Dives is an adjective of one termination, and the neuter, therefore, is dives; as, dives opus, dives munus. There is another form of the word with two terminations, dis, neut. dite, but it very rarely occurs in the nominative singular; dis being found only in Terence, Adelph., v., 1, 8, and dite in Valer. Flacc., ii., 296: but in the other cases and in the plural it is frequently used; as, ditem Asiam, diti gaza, ditia stipendia facere, ditibus promissis; the nominative plural divitia does not seem to occur at all. In the comparative and superlative both forms, divitior, divitissimus, and ditior, ditissimus, are equally in use; the longer forms in the prose of Cicero, and

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