DRACO DORMIENS NUNQUAM TITILLANDUS /  by Anthony Gibbins

While we are on the subject of dragons, you may be familiar with the Hogwarts School Motto, DRACO DORMIENS NUNQUAM TITILLANDUS. It means, as many a Harry Potter fan can tell you, ‘Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon’. Let’s take a look at the grammar.

The easy part is DRACO DORMIENS, ‘a sleeping dragon’. We have seen quite a few Participles like dormiens as we have read through Pico, and here is another. It is a form of the verb dormio, dormire, dormivi, dormitum, to sleep.

TITILLANDUS is a wonderful example of a grammatical feature with a wonderful name; a Gerundive.  This particular Gerundive is a Gerundive of Obligation, meaning it expresses a need to do (or not do). We use a handful of Gerundives of Obligation that have snuck into English, perhaps without even realising it. For example;

femina amanda est. The woman [is] ought to be loved. From amare, to love.

officia agenda sunt. The duties [are] ought to be done. From agere, to do.

consilia propaganda sunt. The plans [are] ought to be propagated or we should spread the plans. From propagare, to propagate.

So, DRACO DORMIENS TITILLANDUS EST means The sleeping dragon [is] ought to be tickled. From titillare, to tickle or titillate. We can drop the EST of the end without anybody really minding - especially in a motto.

Finally, NUNQUAM is an adverb meaning ‘never’. And so we end up where we began - A sleeping dragon is never to be tickled OR Never tickle a sleeping dragon.

And, if I may, I should like to give a huge shout out to my god-daughter Rosie, who lent me the dragon you'll see below. tibi maximas gratias ago, Rosalina. You are awesome.

This evening our Pico imagines himself to be a huge dragon, the protector of his town. For Pico loves his town very-much (valde).

 

in animo fingere /  by Anthony Gibbins

The word fingere is a one-word celebration of creativity. Take a look at the meanings suggested by the Oxford Classical Dictionary; to make by shaping (from clay, wax, molten metal, etc.), to mold or knead (materials) into shape, to form out of original matter, to create, to make a likeness of, to arrange or tidy (the hair), to transform (one’s self), to modify (one’s expression), to guide or influence (a person’s character or behavior), to compose (literary works), to coin (a word or phrase), to contrive (a plan of action), to invent or fabricate (a story, excuse or accusation), to utter (an insincerity), to forge (a will).

Or to form a mental picture of, to conjure up in the mind, to visualize.

Is it this last that Pico does every evening as he stands* upon the roof of Marcellus’ cenaculum. He conjures up in his mind (in animo) something (aliquid) pleasing or delightful (iucundum).

On the very next page we will discover what fictum he is conjuring today.

Every day in the evening it pleases Pico to stand here and conjure something delightful in his mind. Perhaps you are asking what Pico is conjuring today.

* that little plastic figure refuses to sit

look! an indirect statement /  by Anthony Gibbins

Let’s begin with a simple statement. femina homines spectat. ‘The woman is watching the people’. Now, let’s rework this with a Passive Verb. homines a femina spectantur. ‘The people are being watched by the woman’. Each of these sentences is a Statement.

Now, let’s make the first sentence into an Indirect Statement. In English, we might write something like ‘The woman knows THAT she is watching the people’. But in Latin the grammar is something more like ‘The woman knows (scit) herself (se) to-be-watching the people.’ Did you notice the absence of 'THAT' and the change to the Infinitive Verb ‘to-be-watching’? It will be easier once we see it written in Latin; femina scit se homines spectare.

Now, let’s make the second sentence into an Indirect Statement. In English, we might write something like ‘The people know THAT they are being watched by the woman.’ In Latin, however, the grammar is more like ‘The people know (sciunt) themselves (se) to-be-being-watched by the woman. Did you notice that this time the change was to a Passive Infinitive, ‘to-be-being-watched)? Now, let’s see the whole sentence in Latin; homines sciunt se a femina spectari.

Look! This room is occupied. Two people are secretly (clam) conversing among themselves. The people do not know that they are being watched.

seeming passive /  by Anthony Gibbins

Passive Verbs are fairly straight forward in Latin. In the three Tenses formed around the Present Stem, it is only a matter of changing the Verb’s ending. porto, for example, means ‘I am carrying’, whereas portor means ‘I am being carried’. ducit means ‘she is leading’, whereas ducitur means ‘she is being led’.

The difference is a little more pronounced in the three Tenses based around the Perfect Stem. portavi, for example, means ‘I carried’, whereas portatus sum means ‘I was carried.’ duxit means ‘she led’, whereas ducta est means ‘she was led’. This might be a good time to recall to mind the Four Principal Parts of the Verb that make this manipulation possible. For example, porto, portare, portavi, portatum.

The verb video, videre, vidi, visum pulls off a pretty neat trick in the Passive Voice. videt means ‘she sees’, but the Passive videtur can mean either ‘she is seen’ or ‘she seems’. On this page we see femina videtur aliquid spectare, ‘the woman seems to be watching something.’

In my opinion, the woman seems to be watching something. Unless I am mistaken, the woman is intently watching that small room situated on the roof.

nisi fallor... /  by Anthony Gibbins

nisi fallor is another must-have expression. fallor is the Passive, First Person, Singular form of the verb fallo, fallere, fefelli, falsum. fallere means ‘to deceive’, ‘to lead astray’, ‘to cause to be mistaken’. Hence the passive fallor means something like ‘I am deceived’. And from there we have the very useful, nisi fallor, with which a Latin speaker can indicate their uncertainty about the statement that follows; ‘Unless I am mistaken….’.

I am quite certain, however, that this IS the same (eadem) woman that we saw on the roof of the bank.

Unless I am mistaken, she is the same woman that (ac) we saw on the roof of the bank. Without a doubt you are asking what she is doing on the roof of this building.

How Strange! /  by Anthony Gibbins

In this shot we can see the rooftops of two modular buildings, the Parisian Restaurant and the Detective Office. We can also see the water tower on the roof of the latter, as well as the top two letters of the ‘POOL’ sign that hangs over the Montanus. But more importantly, we see the figure that appeared on the roof of the bank at the close of our first story.

Did you see the Lego Movie? Do you remember Unikitty, with her unicorn horn and colourful tail? Those tail pieces were produced in grey to form part of an architectural flourish. See if you can spot them in the picture!

Pico is also able to walk from-here (hinc) to the roof of the neighbouring building. Look! A certain woman is also hanging-around (versatur) on the roof. How strange!

nescio quo modo /  by Anthony Gibbins

I love the expression, nescio quo modo, “I don’t know how’. In fact, I love all the little asides that begin with nescio. I don’t know who (nescio quis), I don’t know why (nescio cur), I don’t know when (nescio quando), I don’t know what (nescio quid) et cetera. Another way to think of these expressions is as meaning somehow, someone, for some reason, at some time, and something.

It’s also interesting that Latin lacks a single word for ‘how’ but uses the expression quo modo, ‘by what method’. (Although it is often written quomodo, with the appearance of a single word.)

Then Pico, I do not know how, climbs onto the roof of the building. Standing on the building Pico is able to watch the whole town.

a case for nouns /  by Anthony Gibbins

On this page and the last, the word pictor appears numerous times. Let’s take a look.

pictor est! coquus pictorem salutat. coquus est pictoris amicus. coquus cibum pictori dat.

You’ll notice that in each of these sentences, the word pictor appears with a modified ending. That is because each example appears in a particular Noun Case. Each Noun Case has a job to do.

pictor is in the Nominative Case. It is the Subject of the Verb. It is ‘doing the action of the Verb’. Here, the pictor ‘is’. In the final sentence, pictor multas gratias coquo agit, pictor is again in the Nominative Case and is the Subject of the verb agit. He is driving thanks to the cook.

pictorem is in the Accusative Case. It is the Object of the Verb. It is ‘receiving the action of the Verb’. Here, the pictorem receives the action of greeting. coquus is in the Nominative Case and is the Subject.

pictoris is in the Genitive Case. Here the Genitive Case is signaling Possession, not unlike an apostrophe s in English. ‘The cook is the artist’s friend.’

pictori is in the Dative Case. There are numerous ways to describe what the Dative Case does. One is to suggest that it is ‘Indirectly Affected by the action of the Verb’. The Subject is coquus, so the cook is giving. The Object is cibum, so he is giving food. pictori is dative, so the artist is Indirectly Affected. The cook is giving food to the artist. (Similarly, in the final sentence, coquo is in the Dative Case.)

The cook gives food to the artist. The cook knows the artist to owe much money, and not (nec) to have this money. The cook gives many thanks to the artist.