CHAPTER XXVII. IRREGULAR AND DEFECTIVE COMPARISON. [§ 109.] 1. SOME adjectives make their degrees of comparison from obsolete forms, or take them from other words of a similar signification. Note.-Multus and plurimus as numerals are used only in the plural. In the singular multus is equivalent to "manifold," or "great ;" as, multus labor, multa cura, and sometimes plurimus has the same sense, e. g., plurimam salutem dico. Poets, however, use the singular multus and plurimus, also, in the sense of the plural, e. g., multa and plurima avis, i. e., multae, plurimae aves, a great many birds; multa canis, many dogs. Of the comparative the neuter only occurs in the nom. and accus. singular (plus), and is used as a substantive; in the genitive pluris and ablat. plure, with the ellipsis of pretii or pretio, it is used with verbs of value, in the sense of "for more," or "at a higher price." The plural is complete, gen. plurium (better than plurum); but the neuter is commonly plura, and rarely pluria. (See § 65, 66.) The superlative plerique is derived from the obsolete plerusque (see 134), and has no genitive. In ordinary language plerique only means "most people," or "the majority;" but plurimi both "most people" and "a great many." All writers, however, do not observe this difference. Nepos often uses plerique in the sense of "a great many," and Tacitus quite reverses the significations; comp. Hist., i., 86, and iii., 81, where plerique is followed by plures, and iv., 84, where we read, Deum ipsum multi Aesculapium, quidam Osirim, plerique Jovem, plurimi Ditem patrem conjectant. The sense of plerique is sometimes enhanced by the addition of omnes; as, plerique omnes, by far the greater number. [§ 110.] 2. The following adjectives have a double irregular superlative: Exter or exterus, a, um, exterior, extremus and extimus. (Infer or inferus), a, um, inferior, infimus and imus. (Super or superus), a, um, superior, supremus and sum mus. (Poster or posterus), a, um, posterior, postremus and postă mus. *[Consult the treatise of Key, "On the Adjectives Good, Better, Best, Bonus, Melior, Optimus," &c.]-Am. Ed. Note.-The forms enclosed in brackets are either not found at all; as, poster, posterus, or occur only in obsolete Latin, which, however, does not prevent the use of the oblique cases and of the other genders. Exter signifies "being without," and the plural exteri, foreigners; inferus, "being below," superus, "being above," e. g., mare superum and inferum, the two seas which surround Italy. Posterus (that it once existed is clear from praeposterus) signifies that which succeeds or follows, but the plur. posteri, descendants. The superlative extimus is much less common than extremus, and postumus occurs only in the sense of a last or posthumous child. [§ 111.] 3. There are some forms of the comparative and superlative which have no adjective for their positive, but an adverb which is derived from an adjective, and has the signification of a preposition. The following, on the other hand, have neither an adjective nor an adverb for their positive: Note.-Deterior, and deterrimus may be compared, but not confounded, with pejor and pessimus. Pejor generally means "worse than something which is bad," and is therefore used as comparative of malus, whereas deterior means something which is inferior, or worse than something which is good, so that it is a descending, just as melior is an ascending comparative of bonus. Potior and potissimus are derived from the obsolete positive potis (see § 103), and prior may be traced to the adverb prae. [§ 112.] 4. The following adjectives have a superlative, but no comparative : Falsus, falsissimus; diversus, diversissimus; inclītus, inclitissimus; novus, novissimus; sacer, sacerrimus; vetus (the comparative is supplied by vetustior), veterrimus (vetustissimus); and some participles which are used as adjectives; as, meritus, meritissimus. [§ 113.] 5. Most adjectives in ilis and bilis, derived from verbs, together with those in ilis, derived from substantives (see § 250), have no superlative. To these we must add the following: agrestis, alacer, ater, caecus, declivis, proclivis, deses (comparative desidior), jejunus,longinquus, propinquus, protervus, salutaris, satur, surdus, teres, and vulgaris. In like manner, there is no superlative of adolescens, juvenis (comparative junior, contracted from juve nior), and senex (comparative senior), which words are regarded as adjectives. Note.-The verbal adjectives amabilis, fertilis, nobilis, ignobilis, mobilis, and utilis, however, have their degrees of comparison complete. 6. The two adjectives, anterior and sequior, exist only as comparatives. The neuter of the latter, sequius, and the adverb secius (otherwise), differ only in their orthography. [§ 114.] 7. Many adjectives have no degrees of comparison at all, because their signification precludes comparison; such are those which denote a substance, origin, possession, or a definite time; e. g., aureus, adamantinus, Graecus, peregrinus, equinus, socialis, paternus, aestivus, hibernus, vivus. Note.-Dexter and sinister seem, likewise, to belong to this class; the comparatives dexterior, sinisterior, and the irregular superlative dextimus, do indeed occur (sinistimus is mentioned, but its use cannot be proved), but without differing in meaning from the positive. Dexter also signifies skilful, and in this sense dexterior is used as a real comparative. Others do not form the comparative and superlative in the usual grammatical manner by the terminations ior and issimus, but by the adverbs magis and maxime, which are put before the adjective, and by the particles mentioned above. Such adjectives are: (a) Those in which the termination us is preceded by a vowel; as, idoneus, dubius, necessarius, noxius, arduus, ingenuus: comparative magis necessarius, superlative maxime necessarius, &c. In qu, however, the u is not regarded as a vowel (see above, § 5); hence antiquus, e. g., has its regular comparative, antiquior, and superlative antiquissimus. Note. As this rule depends entirely upon euphony, respecting which opinions differ, we cannot be surprised to find exceptions. Adjectives in uus, in particular, frequently make the superlative in the regular grammatical way. Cicero and Suetonius use assiduissimus; Sallust, strenuissimus; and Ovid, exiguissimus and vacuissimus, while the comparative of these words occurs only in much inferior authorities. Adjectives in ius are found much more seldom with the grammatical degrees of comparison than those in uus, and whenever they do occur, they reject one i; as, noxior, in Seneca, De Clem., 13; industrior, in the Pseudo-Cicero, De Domo, 11; egregius, in Juvenal, xi., 12. The only superlatives that occur are egregissimus, in Gellius, and pissimus very frequently in the Silver Age of the language, in Curtius, Seneca, and Tacitus, though Cicero had censured the triumvir Antony for having used this wholly un-Latin form. (Philip., xiii., 9.) The forms (piens) pientes and pientissimus are found in inscriptions only. Among the adjectives in eus there are no exceptions, and it is only the later jurists that use the comparative idoneor for the inharmonious idoneior, (b) Many adjectives compounded with substantives and 9.1.67. verbs, e. g., degener, inops, magnanimus, consonus, foedifragus, pestifer; and those which have the derivative terminations icus, īdus, ulus, ālis, īlis, bundus, e. g., modicus, credulus, trepidus, rabidus, rubidus, garrulus, sedulus, exitialis, mortalis, principalis, anilis, hostilis, scurrilis, furibundus. Note.--This remark cannot form a rule, for there are a great many compounded adjectives and derivatives like the above, which have their degrees of comparison; for example, those compounded with mens and cor: amens, demens, concors, discors, vecors, and the adjectives ending in dicus, ficus, and volus, which were mentioned above (§ 105, c). Although it is useful to classify the whole mass of such words under certain divisions, still the dictionary can never be dispensed with. (c) A great number of adjectives which cannot be said to form a distinct class; their want of the degrees of comparison is surprising, and they must be carefully committed to memory: albus, almus, caducus, calvus, canus, curvus, ferus, gnarus, lacer, mutilus, lassus, mediocris, memor, merus, mirus, mutus, navus, nefastus, par, parilis, dispar, properus, rudis, trux (the degrees may be formed from truculentus), vagus. CHAPTER XXVIII. NUMERALS.-CARDINAL NUMERALS. [§ 115.] NUMERALS are partly adjectives and partly adverbs. The adjectives are: 1. Cardinal, denoting simply the number of things; as, tres, three; 2. Ordinal, indicating the place or number in succession; as, tertius, the third; 3. Distributive, denoting how many each time; as, terni, each time three, or three and three together; 4. H.172-3Multiplicative, denoting how manifold; as, triplex, threefold; 5. Proportional, denoting how many times more; as, triplum, three times as much; and, 6. Adverbial numerals, denoting how many times; as, ter, thrice or three times. I. CARDINAL NUMERALS. The cardinal numerals form the roots of the other numerals. The first three, unus, duo, tres, are declined, and have forms for the different genders; the rest, as far as one hundred, are indeclinable.* The hundreds; as, 200, *["It is a remarkable fact that the first four numerals in Greek and Sanscrit, and the first three in Latin, are declined, while all the others remain without inflection. There must be some reason for this. Now we know that the oldest Greek year was divided into three seasons of 300, 400, &c., are declinable, and have different terminations for the genders. Mille, a thousand, is indeclinable, but has a declinable plural for the series of numbers which follows. A higher unit, such as a million or billion, does not exist in Latin, and a million is therefore expressed by the form of multiplication: decies centena milia, i. e., ten times a hundred thousand, or decies alone, with the omission of centena milia, at least when sestertium (HS) is added; and in like manner, vicies, two millions; octogies, eight millions; centies, ten millions; millies, a hundred millions; bis millies, two hundred millions. Note. The genitive singular uni and the dative uno, unae, are of rare occurrence, and unclassical. (Compare, however, § 49.) The plural uni, unae, una, occurs as a numeral only in connexion with pluralia tantum, i. e., such nouns as have no singular, e. g., unae nuptiae, one wedding; una castra, one camp; unae litterae, one letter. (See Chap. XXX.) Unus is used also as a pure adjective, by dropping its signification of a numeral and taking that of "alone," or "the same," e. g., Cæs., Bell. Gall., iv., 16: uni Ubii legatos miserant, the Ubians alone had sent ambassadors; Cic., Pro Flacc., 26. Lacedaemonii septingentos jam annos unis moribus vivunt, with the same manners. Duo and tres are naturally plurals. Nom. duo, duae, duo. Nom. tres (mas. and fem.), tria. Gen. duorum, duarum, duo- Gen. trium. rum. Dat. tribus. [tria. Dat. duobus, duabus, duobus. four months each; and the subdivision of the fundamental number in the state-division into the factors 3 x 4, of which the 4 was the basis, needs not to be insisted on. The first four numerals, therefore, would be more frequently used as adjectives than any of the others, and for this reason would have inflections, which the others, whose use would be more adverbial, might want without so much inconvenience. The same remark applies to the corresponding fact with regard to the Roman numerals. Their fundamental number was three; they had three tribes, just as the Ionians had four. Besides, the old Etruscan year, which was the basis of their civil and religious arrangements, consisted of ten months, not of twelve, and therefore the division into tetrads would not hold with them." (Donaldson, New Cratylus, p. 193, seq.)—Am. Ed. |