Lesson 18: The Latin Language

Lesson 18: The Latin Language

Objectives

Become familiar with the Latin language for medical and anatomical terminology
Recognize how Latin roots appear in their original forms
Be able to translate simple Latin phrases

Inflecting Nouns

As we saw back in Lesson 3, Latin is an inflected language, which means that the spellings of certain words change depending on how they’re used in a sentence. Now, this lesson is not intended to be a crash course in Latin (there are better courses for that). Rather, it should introduce you to the way that Latin nouns are formed and used in preparation for looking at anatomical and medical terms that retain Latin in its original forms instead of through Anglicization. Inflection is not exclusive to Latin, but it’s quite different from English. The important thing to remember is that there is a pattern to how Latin nouns are formed and used.

Nouns have four properties, which affect how their spellings change. These are gender, number, case, and declension.

Gender

Gender in Latin is purely grammatical, which means that it doesn’t necessarily describe the gender of the noun itself. This is different from English, which sometimes genders nouns according to what they describe. For example, a hen is female, and a rooster is male, even though these are both words for a chicken. However, if we were thinking about an inanimate object like a table or a chair, it’s hard to conceptualize whether these items can have genders attached to them in English. Gender in Latin more closely describes a noun’s grammatical function, purpose, or the way that it interacts with other modifiers in the language. The Latin language has three genders: feminine, masculine, and neuter.

English doesn’t have gendered nouns, but if you’re familiar with other European languages, many of them have their own gender systems when it comes to nouns. For example, Danish has a common and neuter gender, French has a masculine and feminine gender, and German has masculine, feminine, and neuter.

Number

Number refers to how many of the nouns there are. There are two possible numbers in Latin, which are the singular or the plural (one or many). The most common way to form plurals in English is to add an ‘S’ at the end of the word, but there are some exceptions as well. For example, the plural of goose is geese and the plural of mouse is mice.

Case

The next property is the case, which refers to how the noun is used in a sentence. Latin actually has seven different cases for ways that nouns can be used, but we’re just going to focus on five. The following chart shows the cases that we’ll work with, their English equivalents, and where you might see them.

Case	English equivalent	Context
Nominative	subject	noun phrases, subject of sentence
Genitive	possessive	often with nominatives in phrases
Dative	indirect object	indicating “to whom/what” or “for whom/what”
Accusative	direct object, object of prepositions	often object of prepositions
Ablative	object of prepositions	often in prepositional phrases

If you’re familiar with Latin or study it at a more advanced level, you will note that this chart gives an oversimplification of the uses of the non-nominatives cases. For the purposes of this class, these are the contexts in which you will see these cases.

For many Latin words retaining their original forms, the dative and ablative will look identical. The way you can tell the difference is that the ablative follows prepositions, whereas the dative does not. Here is a list of Latin prepositions, along with whether they are followed by a word in the accusative case or the ablative case.

Latin preposition	English definition	Accusative	Ablative	Example
ab/a	from, away from		x	a priori
cum	with		x	cum laude
de	away from, down from, concerning		x	de facto
ex/e	out of, away from		x	ex animo
sine	without		x	sine modo
in*	in/on, into/onto	x	x	in situ, in memoriam
post	after	x		post mortem

Declension

The final property that Latin nouns have is declension. Latin nouns, like their English counterparts, comprise a root and an ending. The ending is the part that changes, while the root remains fixed. A declension is like a formula for the type of spelling changes that will occur for a noun’s endings. There are five total declensions in Latin. Here are the paradigms for each.

A lot of the spellings will unfortunately look identical. The most important thing to consider is the context in which you’re translating. The most common cases used in medical terminology are the nominative and genitive cases, so more often than not, those are the two that you’ll see. The dative is rarely used, and the accusative and ablative are usually found with prepositions.

In summary, these are the cases and numbers that are the most common. The charts that follow are solely for your reference.

Nominative singular
Nominative plural
Genitive singular
Genitive plural
Accusative singular
Ablative singular

First Declension Nouns

All first-declension nouns that you will see in this class are feminine. (There exist some masculine first-declension nouns, but these are not relevant to our class.)

Singular

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-a	aqua	water
Genitive	-ae	aquae	of (the) water, water’s
Dative	-ae	aquae	to/for (the) water
Accusative	-am	aquam	water (object)
Ablative	-a	aqua	water (prepositional object)

Plural

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-ae	aquae	waters (subject)
Genitive	-arum	aquarum	of (the) waters, waters’
Dative	-is	aquis	to/for (the) waters
Accusative	-as	aquas	waters (object)
Ablative	-is	aquis	waters (prepositional object)

Second-Declension Nouns

Second-declension nouns are masculine (-us) or neuter (-um). They differ only in their nominative and accusative forms, which is how you can tell the genders apart. Note that a noun will only ever have one gender and declension, even though its number and case may change depending on its use in a sentence or phrase.

Singular

Masculine

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-us	animus	spirit (subject)
Genitive	-i	animi	of (the) spirit, spirit’s
Dative	-o	animo	to/for (the) spirit
Accusative	-um	animum	spirit (object)
Ablative	-o	animo	spirit (prepositional object)

Neuter

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-um	dorsum	back (subject)
Genitive	-i	dorsi	of (the) back, back’s
Dative	-o	dorso	to/for (the) back
Accusative	-um	dorsum	back (object)
Ablative	-o	dorso	back (prepositional object)

Plural

Masculine

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-i	animi	spirits (subject)
Genitive	-orum	animorum	of (the) spirits, spirits’
Dative	-is	animis	to/for (the) spirits
Accusative	-os	animos	spirits (object)
Ablative	-is	animis	spirits (prepositional object)

Neuter

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-a	dorsa	backs (subject)
Genitive	-orum	dorsorum	of (the) backs, backs’
Dative	-is	dorsis	to/for (the) backs
Accusative	-a	dorsa	backs (object)
Ablative	-is	dorsis	backs (prepositional object)

Third-Declension Nouns

Third declension nouns are an odd mix. Because their nominative forms vary (including but not limited to such words as ren, caput, lumen, tumor, and os), the roots are more easily seen in the genitive forms. (This is actually true for nouns of any declension— the rest of the paradigm is determined from the spelling of the genitive.)

There’s one further complication with third-declension nouns, called i-stems. This is usually seen more in the plural forms of some third-declension nouns, which have an extra i in their spellings (hence the name, i-stem). You will not need to memorize which nouns are i-stems or not— any i-stem third-declension nouns will be marked with an asterisk (*) in the charts.

Nouns in this declension can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. Masculine and feminine nouns follow the same paradigm, but neuters are slightly different. Multiple examples are given here for the sake of illustration.

Singular

Masculine

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	varies	pulmo	lung (subject)
Genitive	-is	pulmonis	of (the) lung, lung’s
Dative	-i	pulmoni	to/for (the) lung
Accusative	-em	pulmonem	lung (object)
Ablative	-e	pulmone	lung (prepositional object)

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	varies	dens*	tooth (subject)
Genitive	-is	dentis	of (the) tooth, tooth’s
Dative	-i	denti	to/for (the) tooth
Accusative	-em	dentem	tooth (object)
Ablative	-e	dente	tooth (prepositional object)

Feminine

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	varies	mater	mother (subject)
Genitive	-is	matris	of (the) mother, mother’s
Dative	-i	matri	to/for (the) mother
Accusative	-em	matrem	mother (object)
Ablative	-e	matre	mother (prepositional object)

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	varies	orbis	circle (subject)
Genitive	-is	orbis	of (the) circle, circle’s
Dative	-i	orbi	to/for (the) circle
Accusative	-em	orbem	circle (object)
Ablative	-e	orbe	circle (prepositional object)

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	varies	corpus	body (subject)
Genitive	-is	corporis	of (the) body, body’s
Dative	-i	corpori	to/for (the) body
Accusative	same as nominative	corpus	body (object)
Ablative	-e	corpore	body (prepositional object)

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	varies	animal*	animal (subject)
Genitive	-is	animalis	of (the) animal, animal’s
Dative	-i	animali	to/for (the) animal
Accusative	same as nominative	animal	animal (object)
Ablative	-e	animale	animal (prepositional object)

Plural

Masculine

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	es	pulmones	lungs (subject)
Genitive	-um	pulmonum	of (the) lungs, lungs’
Dative	-ibus	pulmonibus	to/for (the) lungs
Accusative	-es	pulmones	lungs (object)
Ablative	-ibus	pulmonibus	lungs (prepositional object)

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	es	dentes*	tooth (subject)
Genitive	-um/-ium	dentis	of (the) tooth, tooth’s
Dative	-i	denti	to/for (the) tooth
Accusative	-em	dentem	tooth (object)
Ablative	-e	dente	tooth (prepositional object)

Feminine

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	es	matres	mothers (subject)
Genitive	-um	matrum	of (the) mothers, mothers’
Dative	-ibus	matribus	to/for (the) mothers
Accusative	-es	matres	mothers (object)
Ablative	-ibus	matribus	mothers (prepositional object)

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	es	orbes	circles (subject)
Genitive	-um	orbum	of (the) circles, circles’
Dative	-ibus	orbibus	to/for (the) circles
Accusative	-es	orbes	circles (object)
Ablative	-ibus	orbibus	circles (prepositional object)

Neuter

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-a/-ia*	capita	heads (subject)
Genitive	-um/-ium*	capitum	of (the) heads, heads’
Dative	-ibus	capitibus	to/for (the) heads
Accusative	-a/-ia*	capita	heads (object)
Ablative	-ibus	capitibus	heads (prepositional object)

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-a/-ia*	corpora	bodies (subject)
Genitive	-um/-ium*	corporum	of (the) bodies, bodies’
Dative	-ibus	corporibus	to/for (the) bodies
Accusative	-a/-ia*	corpora	bodies (object)
Ablative	-ibus	corporibus	bodies (prepositional object)

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-a/-ia*	animalia*	animals (subject)
Genitive	-um/-ium*	animalium	of (the) animals, animals’
Dative	-ibus	animalibus	to/for (the) animals
Accusative	-a/-ia*	animalia	animals (object)
Ablative	-ibus	animalibus	animals (prepositional object)

Fourth-Declension Nouns

Fourth-declension nouns are rare, and they are usually found in the nominative or ablative. They can be either masculine or neuter.

Singular

Masculine

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-us	fructus	fruit
Genitive	-us	fructus	of (the) fruit, fruit’s
Dative	-ui	fructui	to/for (the) fruit
Accusative	-um	fructum	fruit (object)
Ablative	-u	fructu	fruit (prepositional object)

Neuter

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-u	cornu	horn
Genitive	-us	cornus	of (the) horn, horn’s
Dative	-ui	cornui	to/for (the) horn
Accusative	-u	cornu	horn (object)
Ablative	-u	cornu	horn (prepositional object)

Plural

Masculine

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-us	fructus	fruits
Genitive	-uum	fructuum	of (the) fruits, fruits’
Dative	-ibus	fructibus	to/for (the) fruits
Accusative	-us	fructus	fruits (object)
Ablative	-ibus	fructibus	fruits (prepositional object)

Neuter

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-ua	cornua	horns
Genitive	-uum	cornuum	of (the) horns, horns’
Dative	-ibus	cornibus	to/for (the) horns
Accusative	-ua	cornua	horns (object)
Ablative	-ibus	cornibus	horns (prepositional object)

Fifth-Declension Nouns

Fifth-declension nouns are also rare. These nouns are usually masculine or feminine (neuter fifth-declension nouns exist, but they’re not relevant to this class). Masculine and feminine nouns follow the same paradigm, so they’re listed in the same charts below.

Singular

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-es	facies	face
Genitive	-ei	faciei	of (the) face, face’s
Dative	-ei	faciei	to/for (the) face
Accusative	-em	faciem	face (object)
Ablative	-e	facie	face (prepositional object)

Plural

Case	Ending	Example	Translation
Nominative	-es	facies	faces (subject)
Genitive	-erum	facierum	of (the) faces, faces’
Dative	-ebus	faciebus	to/for (the) faces
Accusative	-es	facies	faces (object)
Ablative	-ebus	faciebus	faces (prepositional object)

Adjectives

In English, the spelling of the adjective doesn’t actually change depending on the noun it modifies. The example I gave was saying the phrase “the blue dog”, where “dog” is singular, and “the blue dogs”, where “dogs” is plural. The word “blue” doesn’t change between both phrases.

However, in Latin, adjectives have to agree with their modified nouns in gender, number, and case. So for example “the blue dog” (it’s hard to demonstrate gender and case in English, but we can still demonstrate the number), “the blue dog” in the plural would have to become “the blues dogs” for the adjective to change its form to agree with its noun.

The properties of nouns— number, gender, case, and declension— all apply to adjectives as well. The same divisons of number, gender, and case all apply to Latin adjectives, but their declensions work a little differently. There are only two declensions of adjectives, and they are named (perhaps a bit confusingly) first/second and third because of their resemblance to the paradigms for first, second, and third-declension nouns. Here are the charts for each:

First/Second Declension Adjectives

Since adjectives can be any gender, I’ve listed these in order of masculine/feminine/neuter forms. Examples follow:

Singular

Case	Ending	Example
Nominative	-us/-a/-um	bonus/bona/bonum
Genitive	-i/-ae/-i	boni/bonae/boni
Dative	-o/-ae/-i	bono/bonae/bono
Accusative	-um/-am/-um	bonum/bonam/bonum
Ablative	-o/-a/-o	bono/bona/bono

Plural

Case	Ending	Example
Nominative	-i/-ae/-a	boni/bonae/bona
Genitive	-orum/-arum/-orum	bonorum/bonarum/bonorum
Dative	-is/-is/-is	bonis/bonis/bonis
Accusative	-os/-as/-a	bonos/bonas/bona
Ablative	-is/-is/-is	bonis/bonis/bonis

Third Declension Adjectives

Though there are three genders for third-declension adjectives, there are only two forms per adjective. The masculine and feminine are identical. As such, the forms in the following chart are given in order of masculine-feminine/neuter. Note that this does not mean that an adjective is simultaneously masculine and feminine!

Unlike nouns, there are no i-stem adjectives.

Singular

Case	Ending	Example 1	Example 2	Example 3
Nominative	varies	levis/leve	ardens/ardens	inferior/inferius
Genitive	-is/-is	levis/levis	ardentis/ardentis	inferioris/inferioris
Dative	-i/-i	levi/levi	ardenti/ardenti	inferiori/inferiori
Accusative	-em/same as nom.	levis/leve	ardentem/ardens	inferiorem/inferius
Ablative	-e or -i	levi/levi	ardente/ardente	inferiori/inferiori

Plural

Case	Ending	Example 1	Example 2	Example 3
Nominative	-es/-ia or -a	leves/levia	ardentes/ardentia	inferiores/inferiora
Genitive	-ium/-ium	levium/levium	ardentium/ardentium	inferiorium/inferiorium
Dative	-ibus/-ibus	levibus/levibus	ardentibus/ardentibus	inferioribus/inferioribus
Accusative	-es**/same as nom.	leves/levia	ardentes/ardentia	inferiores/inferiora
Ablative	-ibus/-ibus	levibus/levibus	ardentibus/ardentibus	inferioribus/inferioribus

**: Sometimes the accusative plural for these adjectives ends in -is. This is rare.

Latin adjectives have to agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case, but they do not have to agree in declension. As such, it’s completely possible to have a first declension adjective with a fourth declension noun, a third declension adjective with a first declension noun, so on and so forth.

Latin Phrases in Common Use

Here are some Latin phrases that you may encounter, with their definitions.

Latin	English
a priori	from (the) preceding, from before
a posteriori	from (the) following, from behind
in vitro	in glass
in vivo	in a living (thing)
post mortem	after death
post scriptum	after the writing
per se	by oneself
per capita	by (the) head, by heads
pro se	for oneself
pro bono	for (the) good

Vocabulary List

Root	Language of origin	Meaning	Example
chord(a)	Greek	string, spine, backbone	Chordata
(o)dyn	Greek	pain	myodynia
dactyl(o)	Greek	finger, toe	syndactyly
ur(i/e)	Greek	urine	urinary
gnath	Greek	jaw	gnathoplasty
hyal	Greek	glass, glassy	hyalin
caust	Greek	to burn, burning	caustic
parie(t)	Latin	wall	parietal
faci(o/a)	Latin	face	facial
camer(a)	Latin	room, chamber	camera
ventr(a)	Latin	belly, underside	ventral
aur(i)	Latin	ear	aural
digit	Latin	finger, toe	digital
reticul(a)	Latin	net, network	reticulated
fib(e)r	Latin	fiber, string	fiber
vitr	Latin	glass, glassy	vitreous
lev(i)	Latin	light (as in weight)	levitate
fasci(s)	Latin	bundle (usu. of tissues)	fascia
ard(u/e)	Latin	to burn, burning	arduous
mors/mort	Latin	to die, death	mortal
viv(a/o)	Latin	to live, living	vivacious

Vocabulary Practice

Practice Set A: Use the roots you know to determine what each of the following Latin words means. Then tell whether it’s a noun or adjective.

brevis
longum
manus
oculus
alba
dorsum
gravis
dexter
nomen
flora

Practice Set B: Identify the roots in each of the following words, give their language of origin, and their definitions. Also give their part of speech. Then, following the guidelines in Lesson 4, arrange the definitions of the individual roots to create a literal definition.

levity
mortuary
ardor
bicamerate
auricle
reticulum
ventral
vitreous
fibromyalgia
dactylitis
hyaluronic
fasciation
ureter
hypocaust
micrognathia

Reflection Questions

Do you find that the case system makes it easier or harder to understand Latin nouns, and why?
Most Latin terminology in medical usage is comprised of nouns and some adjectives. Why do you think there are so few verbs?
Choose one of the phrases in the Latin Phrases in Common Use section. Identify each of the nouns. Then tell which case you think each of the nouns is, and why.
What do you notice in common between the declension paradigms between adjectives and nouns?
Choose any three of the Latin roots from this lesson. Look up and give their original Latin forms (you may refer to Wiktionary or Logeion for most accurate results— Google translate is not great for this). What gender and declension do they follow?