Ducentesimum Tricesimum Secundum Latinum Verbum Diei: December 20, 2010

[Christina Wallin]

Theme for this month: Latin in German!

nunc

Definition: now, at the present, at this time

Sententia: Vergil's Aeneid, 6.776

Nunc age, Dardaniam prolem quae deinde sequatur
gloria, qui maneant Itala de gente nepotes,
inlustris animas nostrumque in nomen ituras,
expediam dictis et te tua fata docebo.

Now, come on, I will relate with words which glory then will follow
the Dardanian descendants, the grandsons who will remain from the
Italian race, spirits noble and about to go forth in our name, and I
shall show you your fates.

Publius Vergilus Maro was a poet of the first century B.C. He is well
known for the Aeneid, as well as his Eclogues and Georgics. In Book 6
of the Aeneid, Aeneas is in the underworld just before he reaches
Latium, talking with the Sibyl of Cumae. In this section, she is
introducing the history of Rome, saying that she will inform Aeneas of
the great ones to come in the city that he will found in Italy,
including Romulus and many others.

“Nunc” is indeed a quite basic, Latin 1 sort of word. However,
interestingly enough, it shares a common history with the German word
“nun,” also meaning “now.” They both come from the Proto-Indo-
European root '*nu,' also meaning “now.” Proto-Indo-European is a
posited ancestor language of many Indo-European languages, thought to
have been spoken by hunter-gatherers in Eastern Europe in
approximately 5000 B.C. (though that date is greatly disputed by
historical linguists).  Its descendants include languages as distinct
as English, Latin, German, Hindi, and Russian, among many others. 
However, since we have no written record of the language, all we know
about it comes from the process of reconstruction: comparing words in
different languages in order to determine what the original word could
have been.