2. The Ablative in e in many adjectives of one ending cannot be verified from ancient authors.-The ablative in i is in general preferable. 3. Some have only e in general use.-(1) Pauper, paupère, poor; pūbes, pubĕre, mature;—(2) those in es, G. ĭtis or ĭdis: āles, dēses, dives, sospes, superstes ;-(3) caelebs, compos, impos, princeps. 4. The Ablative in e sometimes occurs in poetry in positives of more than one ending: cognomine for cognomini, like named. III. Nominative, Accusative and Vocative Plural of Neuters. 157. I. ENDING:- -iă in positives: acriă, tristiă. II. 66 ǎ in comparatives: tristiōră. 1. Větus, old, has veteră; complūres, several, has compluriă or complură. 2. The neuter plural is wanting in most adjectives of one ending, except those in as, ns, rs, ax, ix, ox, and numerals in plex. IV. Genitive Plural. um in comparatives: tristiōrum. 158. I. ENDING: ium in positives: acrium, tristium. 1. Some adjectives want the genitive plural. 2. Plūres, more, and complures, several, have ium. 3. The following have um: 1) Adjectives of one ending with only e in the ablative singular (156. 3): pauper, pauperum. 2) Those with the genitive in ĕris, ŏris, ŭris: větus, veterum, old; měmor, memorum, mindful; cicur, cicurum, tame. 3) Those in ceps: anceps, ancipitum, doubtful. 4) Those compounded with substantives which have um: inops (ops, ŏpum), inopum, helpless. IRREGULAR ADJECTIVES. 159. Irregular adjectives may be I. Indeclinable: frugi, frugal, good; nequam, worthless; mille, thousand. II. Defective: (cetĕrus) cetera, cetĕrum, the other, the rest; (sons) sontis, guilty. III. Heteroclites.-Many adjectives have two distinct forms, one in us, a, um, of the first and second declensions, and one in is and e of the third: hilărus and hilăris, joyful; exanimus and exanimis, lifeless. 1. The Latin has but few indeclinable adjectives, except numerals (175). 2. Some adjectives want 1) The nominative singular masculine: (cetěrus) cetera, ceterum, the other; (ludicer) ludicra, ludicrum, sportive. 2) One or more cases in full: (semĭnex) seminěcis, half dead, defective in the nominative; exspes, hopeless, only used in the nominative; exlex, law less, only in nominative and accusative; pernox, through the night, only in nominative and ablative. 3) The neuter gender or genitive plural. See 157. 2 and 158. 1. 4) The singular: pauci, ae, a, few; plerique, the most; the latter wants also the genitive plural, supplied by plurimi. The singular of plerique occurs, but is very rare. In good prose exterus wants the singular; and inferus, superus, and posterus are used in the singular only in particular expressions: mare inferum, the lower sea, i. e., south of Italy; mare supĕrum, the upper sea, i. e., north of Italy, the Adriatic; posterus in expressions of time: diem posterum, the following day; nocte postěra, on the following night. 3. In most heteroclites only one form is in common use in classic prose; in a few, as in the examples under 159. III., both forms are approved. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES. 160. Adjectives have three forms to denote different degrees of quality. They are usually called the Positive, the Comparative, and the Superlative degree: altus, altior, altissimus, high, higher, highest. Comparatives and superlatives are sometimes best rendered into English by too and very, instead of more and most: doctus, learned; doctior, more learned, or too learned; doctissimus, most learned, or very learned. 161. The Latin, like the English, has two modes of comparison: I. Terminational Comparison-by endings. II. Adverbial Comparison-by adverbs. I. TERMINATIONAL COMPARISON. 162. Adjectives are regularly compared by adding to the stem of the positive the endings: Altus, altior, altissimus: high, higher, highest. Irregular Terminational Comparison. 163. Irregular Superlatives.-Many adjectives with regular comparatives have irregular superlatives. Thus 1. Adjectives in er add rimus to the positive: acer, acrior, acerrimus, sharp. Vetus has veterrimus; matūrus, both maturrimus and maturissimus; dexter, dextimus. 2. Six in ĭlis add lĭmus to the stem: thus: facilis, facilior, facillimus. Imbecillis has imbecillimus, but imbecillus is regular. 3. Four in rus have two irregular superlatives: inferior, infimus and extĭmus, and imus, outward. upper. infĕrus, 164. Compounds in dicus, ficus, and volus are compared with the endings entior and entissimus, as if from forms in ens: Maledicus, maledicentior, maledicentissimus, slanderous. 1. Egenus and providus (needy and prudent), form the comparative and superlative from egens and providens: hence egentior, egentissimus, etc. 2. Mirificissimus occurs as the superlative of mirificus, wonderful. 3. Many adjectives in dicus and ficus want the comparative and superlative. 165. Special Irregularities of Comparison. 1. Plus is neuter, and has in the plurimus, much. singular only N. and A. plus, and G. pluris. In the plural it has N. and A. plūres (m. and f.), plūra (n.), G. plu rium, D. and A. pluribus. 2. Dives, frugi, nèquam: Dives, frugi, divitior, ditior, frugalior, nēquam, nequior, divitissimus, ditissimus, rich. frugalissimus, frugal. 1 These adjectives are formed from citra, de, intra, Greek wкús, prae or pro, prope, ultra. 167. Comparative Wanting.-The comparative is wanting 1. In a few participles used adjectively: meritus, meritissimus, de serving. 2. In these adjectives: Diversus, diversissimus, different. novus, novissimus, new. falsus, falsissimus, false. săcer, sacerrimus, sacred. inclytus, inclytissimus, renowned. větus, veterrimus, old. 168. Superlative Wanting.-The superlative is wanting 1. In most verbals in ilis and bilis: docilis, docilior, docile; optabilis, optabilior, desirable. But of these Some are compared in full: amabilis, facilis, fertilis, mobilis, nobilis, utilis, etc. 2. In many adjectives in ālis and ilis: capitalis, capitalior, capital; civilis, civilior, civil. 3. Three adjectives supply the superlative thus: 4. A few other adjectives want the superlative: agrestis, alăcer, caecus, diuturnus, infinitus, longinquus, opimus, proclivis, propinquus, salutāris, supīnus, surdus, tères, vulgāris. 169. Both Comparative and Superlative Wanting.—Many adjectives have no terminational comparison: 1. Many from the nature of their signification, admitting no comparison; especially such as denote material, possession, or the relations of place and time: aureus, golden; adamantinus, adamantine; paternus, paternal; Romānus, Roman; hesternus, of yesterday; aestivus, of summer; hibernus, of winter. 2. Many others. Thus 1) Those in us preceded by a vowel, except those in quus: idoneus, suitable; noxius, hurtful. But a few in uus have the superlative: assiduus, strenuus. Other exceptions occur, especially in the poets: pius, piissimus; egregius, egregiissimus. 2) Many derivatives and compounds, especially (1) derivatives in ālis, īlis, ulus, icus, īnus, ōrus: mortālis (mors), mortal; (2) compounds of verbs or of nouns: particeps (capio), sharing; magnanimus (anĭmus), magnani mous. 3) Also albus, almus, caducus, ferus, fessus, gnārus, lassus, mīrus, mutilus, nāvus, nefastus, rudis, etc. II.-ADVERBIAL COMPARISON. 170. Adjectives which want the terminational comparison, form the comparative and superlative, when their signification requires it, by prefixing the adverbs mugis, more, and maxime, most, to the positive: 1 Smallest or youngest in age; greatest or eldest in age. Natu is sometimes omitted. Arduus, măgis arduus, maxime arduus, arduous. 1. Other adverbs are sometimes used with the positive to denote different degrees of the quality: admodum, valde, oppido, very; imprimis, apprime, in the highest degree; minus, less; minime, least: valde magna, very great. Per and prae in composition with adjectives have the force of very; perdifficilis, very difficult; praeclārus, very illustrious. 2. Strengthening Particles are sometimes used.-(1) With the comparative: etiam, even, multo, longe, much, far: etiam diligentior, even more diligent; multo diligentior, much more diligent.-(2) With the superlative: multo, longe, much, by far; quam, as possible: multo or longe diligentissimus, by far the most diligent; quam diligentissimus, as diligent as possible. NUMERALS. 171. Numerals comprise numeral adjectives and numeral adverbs. I. NUMERAL ADJECTIVES. 172. Numeral adjectives comprise three principal classes: 1. CARDINAL NUMBERS: ūnus, one; duo, two. 2. ORDINAL NUMBERS: primus, first; secundus, second. 3. DISTRIBUTIVES: singuli, one by one; bini, two by two, two each, two apiece. 173. To these may be added 1. MULTIPLICATIVES.-These are adjectives in plex, G. plicis, denoting so many fold: simplex, single; duplex, double; triplex, three-fold. 2. PROPORTIONALS.-These are declined like bonus, and denote so many times as great: duplus, twice as great; triplus, three times as great. 1 Prior is used in speaking of two, and alter is often used for secundus. |