Ducentesimum Duodecimum Latinum Verbum Diei: June 13, 2010

[Christina Wallin]

Theme for this month: Verbs

nequeo, nequire, nequivi, nequitum

Definition: to be unable (+ inf, or implied inf.); (with quin) to be
unable to prevent oneself (from doing something)

Sententia: Terence's Adelphi, l. 74-77

hoc patriumst, potius consuefacere filium
sua sponte recte facere quam alieno metu:
hoc pater et dominus interest. Hoc qui nequit,
fateatur nescire imperare liberis.

This is [the duty] of fathers, to accustom his son to do right by his
own will rather than by fear of another (lit. outside/foreign fear):
in this a father and a master differ. Let he who is unable [to do]
this confess that he does not know how to keep his children in line
(lit. “to command his children”).

Again, this selection is from Terence's Adelphi, since I drawing the
LVDs from the selections in the Loeb Classical Library Reader (a book
with short segments of works from many authors, both in Greek and
Latin), and in reading it, I am still on Terence. Since the work and
author are the same, I shall forgo my customary description of these,
starting up where I left off with the summary of context. Micio,
having worried dreadfully about his adopted son, Aechinus, goes on to
describe his style of parenting. In his eyes, a father should not be
excessively authoritarian, lest a son only do good while being watched
by his father for fear of reprise, and feel free to hide other
wrongdoings. His brother, whose son Micio has adopted, however,
thinks that an authoritarian approach is the only suitable one, and
has accused Micio of ruining Aechinus. In this passage, Micio is
expressing his opinion on the matter, with his brother's approach in
mind.

“Nequeo” is a moderately frequent word, and though it itself is not
found in the AP Vergil syllabus, its opposite, “queo,” is. The
etymology which the OLD proposes for this word is that is is derived
from an impersonal phrase “*neque itur,” meaning “it does not go
well” (with the * marking the fact that the construction is not
actually found, and is merely proposed by historical linguists).

An interesting note about “patriumst:” this is the equivalent of
“patrium est” in prose. Those of you familiar with the normal elision
rules in poetry will know that, by these rules, the expected
pronunciation of “patrium est” is “patri'est.” However, there is an
exception, entitled prodelision, by which in the case of “-m est,” the
“e” from “est” is elided, rather than the segment ending in “m.”