Talk:quadrupes

RFC discussion: April 2017–February 2021

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quadrupes

The entry has "3. (substantive) a quadruped".

1. This misses the gender of the substantive. According to dictionaries there a three substantives, a masculine, a feminine and a neuter.
2. It misses the declension of the substantive. The entry would imply that they are declined like the adjective, but that's doubtful. It seems that the adjective has abl. sg. -ī and also -e (maybe in poetry out of metrical reasons?), and might have neuter pl. -ia and gen. pl. *-ium. The masculine and feminine substantive however might have abl. sg. *-e and gen. pl. -um; and the neuter substantive might have plural -ia, gen. *-ium, and abl. sg. *-ī (like e.g. animal).
   

A doubtful reference for the adjective declension:

Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for schools and colleges founded on comparative grammar, 1903, p. 53f.:
"121. [...] a. The Ablative Singular commonly ends in -ī, but sometimes -e. [...]
3. The following have regularly -ī:—āmēns, anceps, concors (and other compounds of cor), cōnsors (but as a substantive, -e), dēgener, hebes, ingēns, inops, memor (and compounds), pār (in prose), perpes, praeceps, praepes, teres.
[...]"
b. The Genitive Plural ends commonly in -ium, but has -um in the following:¹—
1. Always in compos, dīves, inops, particeps, prīnceps, supplex, and compounds of nouns which have -um: as, quadru-pēs, bi-color.
[...]
122. The following special points require notice:—[...] d. Many adjectives, from their signification, can be used only in the masculine and feminine. These may be called adjectives of common gender.
Such are adulēscēns, youthful; [†dēses], -idis, slothful; inops, -opis, poor; sōspes, -itis, safe. [...]
[...]
¹ Forms in -um sometimes occur in a few others."

This would mean that adjectives like quadrupes have gen. pl. -um - which would usually imply that the neuter plural is -a and not -ia.
BTW: As for the adjective inops, A&G says it has abl. -ī, gen. pl. -um and no neuter plural (so neither *-ia nor *-a). Maybe note that there is a substantive inopes with gen. pl. -um and a substantive inopia, so finding inopum or inopia doesn't necessarily attest a form of the adjective.
However, dictionaries and grammars sometimes do not to properly differ between the inflection of adjectives and substantivations. Based on cites or references given in dictionaries, it should be like stated before the quote.
Examples of related words:

• terms in -pes, gen. -pedis:
  • by number: bipēs, tripēs, quadrupēs & quadripēs, sēpēs, septipēs, octipēs, centipēs, multipēs
  • aequipēs, aeripēs, ālipēs, anguipēs, avipēs, capripēs, cornipēs, dracōnipēs, fissipēs, flammipēs, flexipēs, gracilipēs, īgnipēs, lānipēs, lātipēs, longipēs, lōripēs, mollipēs, nūdipēs, palmipēs, pinnipēs or pennipes (depending on reading/edition), plānipēs, properipēs, rēmipēs, serpentipēs, solidipēs, sonipēs, tardipēs, uncipēs, volucripēs.
  • maybe depending on edition: lentipēs
• terms in -color, gen. -colōris:
  • by number: ūnicolor, bicolor, tricolor, quadricolor, multicolor
  • albicolor, auricolor, concolor, dēcolor, discolor, dīversicolor, flūcticolor, īgnicolor, incolor, nigricolor, omnicolor, ostricolor, pudōricolor, versicolor
  • maybe depending on edition: ātricolor, īricolor, lacticolor
• *tricuspis (Ovid has abl. sg. tricuspide with telō)

Cites (based on mentioned forms and given references/cites in dictionaries):

Note: thelatinlibrary.com (TLL), LacusCurtius (LC) etc. are just used as they are easy to mention, and although they could contain errors, the important parts should indeed appear in printed editions.

concolor:

• Plinius at LC in book 8, 9, 21, 33 has "concolori" which might be abl.

versicolor:

Maybe also see versicolor.
L&S: "abl. versicolori, Liv. 7, 10: versicolore, Prop. 4, 7, 50; Ov. F. 5, 356 [...] Subst.: versĭcŏlōrĭa, ium, n., dyed stuffs, colored woolens. constabat apud veteres lanae appellatione versicoloria non contineri, Dig. 32, 1, 70, § 12; 34, 2, 32, § 6" — Georges: "Plur. subst. [...] pingere versicolora (Ggstz. unicolora), Fronto epist. ad Ver. 1, 1. p. 113, 18 N."

• Livius at TLL has: "Corpus alteri magnitudine eximium, versicolori veste pictisque et auro caelatis refulgens armis"
• Popertius has: "et fultum pluma versicolore caput"; at TLL: "effultum pluma versicolore caput"
• Ovid, also at TLL, has "sic haec est cultu versicolore decens?"

substantive:

• Plinius at LC has "[...] stupueruntque litora flatu versicoloria pellente vela."
• Marcus Cornelius Fronto's Epistulae (he lived in the 2nd century A.D., but his letters were found 1815 or later) at TLL has: "Quid si Parrhasium versicolora pingere juberet aut Apellen unicolora aut"
• Digesta cited with versicoloria are from the 6th century, though they could quote or contain an older text.
  book 32 (chapter "Ulpianus libro 22 ad Sabinum") at archive.org: "Et constabat apud veteres lanae appellatione versicoloria non contineri"; book 34 (chapter "Paulus libro secundo ad Vitellium") at archive.org: "Labeo testamento suo Neratiae uxori suae nominatim legavit "vestem mundum muliebrem omnem ornamentaque muliebria omnia lanam linum purpuram versicoloria facta infectaque omnia" et cetera. Sed non mutat substantiam rerum non necessaria verborum multiplicatio, quia Labeo testamento lanam ac deinde versicoloria scripsit, quasi desit lana tincta lana esse, detractoque verbo "versicolorio" nihilo minus etiam versicoloria debebuntur, si non appareat aliam defuncti voluntatem fuisse."

sepes:

L&S: "six-footed: populi (formicae), App. M. 6, p. 177, 26."

• Apulejus, Metamorphoses, liber VI. In: Apuleius The Golden Ass being the Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius with an English translation by W. Adlington (1566) revised by S. Gaselee, 1922, p. 264f.

  Ruunt aliae superque aliae sepedum populorum undae summoque studio singulae granatim totum digerunt acervum separatimque distributis dissitisque generibus e conspectu perniciter abeunt.

  Incontinently they came, the hosts of six-footed creatures one after another in waves, separating and dividing the grain, and after that they had put each kind of corn in order, they ran away again in all haste from her sight.

  The Latin text is also at TLL.
  Elsewhere "sepedum populorum" was translated as ants (here, in German "Ameisen").
  sepedum here could be an adjective like "of the six-footed peoples" or a substantive like "of the peoples of the six-footed [creatures/animals]". I guess it makes more sense as a substantive just as in the given English translation which uses hosts instead of peoples for populi.

bipes:

L&S: "neutr. plur. bipedia, Aug. Mor. Manich. 9 [...] Subst., mostly contemptuously, of men: hoc ministro omnium non bipedum solum sed etiam quadripedum impurissimo, Cic. Dom. 18, 48: Regulus omnium bipedum nequissimus, as great a rogue as walks on two legs, Modest. ap. Plin. Ep. 1, 5, 14; Cic. Dom. 18, 48; Lampr. Alex. Sev. 9"

• 3rd or 4th century, Augustinus, De moribus Manichaeorum at augustinus.it does have bipedia, and also quadrupedia: "[...], malum esse animalia in illis singulis nata elementis, serpentia in tenebris, natantia in aquis, volatilia in ventis, quadrupedia in igne, bipedia in fumo." and "Quis enim tantam perversitatem ferat, qua dicitur in tenebrarum gente, cui nihil admixtum erat luminis, animalia bipedia tam firmam, tam vegetam, [...]".

  CCEL has an English translation: "[...] to the animals born in each of these elements,—serpents in the darkness, swimming creatures in the waters, flying creatures in the winds, quadrupeds in the fire, bipeds in the smoke." and "For is it not intolerable perversity to say that in the race of darkness, where there was no mixture of light, the biped animals had so sound and strong, [...]"

quadrupes/quadripes:

L&S: "gen. plur. quadrupedium, Capitol. Ver. 5, 2 [...] equestri celeritate, quadrupedi cursu solum replaudens, App. M. 6, p. 185, 7. [....] Masc. [...]: calcari quadrupedem agitabo advorsum clivum, Plaut. As. 3, 3, 11: reprime parumper vim citatūm quadrupedum, Att. ap. Non. 495, 20: quadrupedum vectiones, quorum, etc., Cic. N. D. 2, 60, 151 [....] Neutr. (sc. animal): cetera quadrupedia, Col. 11, 2, 33: majora, id. 11, 2, 14: [...]: plurima autem obruerit quadrupedia, Jul. Val. Rer. Gest. Alex. 3, 36." — Georges: "neutr.: cetera quadrupedia, Colum.: maiora quadrupedia, Colum.: omnia quadrupedia, Pallad. [...] Genet. Plur. gew. quadrupedum (quadripedum); aber quadripedium, Colum. 1, 2, 5 cod. P. Capit. Ver. 5, 2 cod. B (u. ed. Peter). Isid. orig. 12, 7, 5 cod. Gud. 1."

• quadrupedi/quadripedi cursu Apul. Met. 6 - TLL has: "Et alacri statim nisu lorum quo fueram destinatus abrumpo meque quadripedi cursu proripio."
  A better source:
  • Apulejus, Metamorphoses, liber VI. In: Apuleius The Golden Ass being the Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius with an English translation by W. Adlington (1566) revised by S. Gaselee, 1922, p. 286ff.

    Et alacri statim nisu lorum, quo fueram destinatus,
    abrumpo, meque quadripedi cursu proripio

    Then while I devised these things, I broke suddenly the halter wherewith I was tied, and ran away with all my four feet1
    1 Quadripedi cursu seems to be a phrase for galloping, as in modern Greek στὰ τέσσερα.

• de quadrupede equo Gell. 18, 5, 5 - in PHI Latin Texts it's "de hoc anagnosta et de quadrupede eco uidetur?"
• All the given cites for quadrupedia are for neuter substantives.
• "gen. plur. quadrupedium, Capitol. Ver. 5, 2": At LC is "donata et viva animalia vel cicurum vel ferarum avium vel quadripedum" with the note "So P; quadrupedium B, Peter.". Translation at LC is: "and also live animals either tame or wild, winged or quadruped, of whatever kind were the meats that were served,". So it depends on manuscript or edition, and as avium is a substantive (gen. pl. of avis), so should be quadripedum/quadrupedium, although it's translated with an adjective in this English translation.
• A GBS preview had "Gen. Pl. quadripedum, bipedum, alipedum usw. sehr oft [etc. very often]" - but it could be that that are the gen. pl.s of substantives and not necessarily of any adjective.

Missing:

• Missing are cites for the abl. sg. of the substantives.
  The masculine and feminine quadrupēs should have abl. -e as they are substantives and have gen. pl. -um.
  quadrupedia could be a plurale tantum (there are many more neuter pluralia tantum derived from adjectives, e.g. in -ālia from -ālis). But L&S gives a cite for a singular: "crocodilum, quadripes malum et infestum, Plin. 8, 25, 37, § 89" (text at LC). It should be more likely that it belongs to the i-declension like animal with abl. sg. -ī.

-80.133.119.166 05:38, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

Closed as stale (RFC template no longer present). — surjection ⟨??⟩ 22:49, 7 February 2021 (UTC)