Let\u2019s begin with a few DOUBLETS. The adjective planus<\/b> evolved into two English HOMONYMS, plain<\/i> and plane<\/i>, which both have clear semantic links to the meanings \u201clevel,\u201d \u201ceven,\u201d \u201cflat.\u201d Both plain<\/i> and plane<\/i> have various English uses, of course, and can be several different parts of speech. In Italian, where the initial pl<\/b>- of Latin regularly changed to pi-, <\/i> planus<\/b> became piano<\/i>, an adjective that still means \u201cplain,\u201d \u201clevel,\u201d or \u201cflat.\u201d As an adverb, piano<\/i> suggests \u201csoftly,\u201d a meaning it carries as a musical notation. A keyboard instrument that could be played either softly or loudly (\u201cstrongly\u201d) was called the pianoforte<\/i>, which we have shortened to piano<\/i>. An Italian derivative also provides one of the doublets from Latin rotundus<\/b>, in the form of rotunda<\/i>, a round building or a round room. The English words round<\/i> and rotund<\/i> are perfect doublets; rotund<\/i> has become rather specialized in meaning, since we use it only to refer to human girth. Another pair of doublets are integer<\/i> and entire <\/i>(< OF entier<\/i>).<\/p>\r\n
The Latin adjectives pronus<\/b> and supinus<\/b> meant \u201cleaning forward\u201d and \u201cbent backward\u201d; and their English derivatives prone<\/i> and supine<\/i> still express the literal image of lying face down or face up, respectively. If you are prone<\/i> to do something, you are eagerly leaning forward (in a metaphorical sense, at least); if your attitude is supine<\/i>, you are sluggish and inert\u2014flat on your back, so to speak.<\/p>\r\n
In Latin, levis<\/b> and gravis<\/b> are exact opposites in meaning (ANTONYMS): both refer to physical weight, but both can be used also in a moral or ethical sense (like our \u201clight\u201d and \u201cheavy\u201d reading). The English derivatives levity<\/i> and gravity<\/i> are similarly flexible, but the adjective grave<\/i> (= \u201cserious,\u201d \u201csolemn\u201d) is not applied to physical weight. This word grave<\/i>, derived from L gravis<\/b>, has no connection with the grave<\/i> in which one is buried; that is a Germanic homograph (\u00a712<\/a>), from OE gr\u00e6f<\/i>.<\/p>","rendered":" Let\u2019s begin with a few DOUBLETS. The adjective planus<\/b> evolved into two English HOMONYMS, plain<\/i> and plane<\/i>, which both have clear semantic links to the meanings \u201clevel,\u201d \u201ceven,\u201d \u201cflat.\u201d Both plain<\/i> and plane<\/i> have various English uses, of course, and can be several different parts of speech. In Italian, where the initial pl<\/b>– of Latin regularly changed to pi-, <\/i> planus<\/b> became piano<\/i>, an adjective that still means \u201cplain,\u201d \u201clevel,\u201d or \u201cflat.\u201d As an adverb, piano<\/i> suggests \u201csoftly,\u201d a meaning it carries as a musical notation. A keyboard instrument that could be played either softly or loudly (\u201cstrongly\u201d) was called the pianoforte<\/i>, which we have shortened to piano<\/i>. An Italian derivative also provides one of the doublets from Latin rotundus<\/b>, in the form of rotunda<\/i>, a round building or a round room. The English words round<\/i> and rotund<\/i> are perfect doublets; rotund<\/i> has become rather specialized in meaning, since we use it only to refer to human girth. Another pair of doublets are integer<\/i> and entire <\/i>(< OF entier<\/i>).<\/p>\n The Latin adjectives pronus<\/b> and supinus<\/b> meant \u201cleaning forward\u201d and \u201cbent backward\u201d; and their English derivatives prone<\/i> and supine<\/i> still express the literal image of lying face down or face up, respectively. If you are prone<\/i> to do something, you are eagerly leaning forward (in a metaphorical sense, at least); if your attitude is supine<\/i>, you are sluggish and inert\u2014flat on your back, so to speak.<\/p>\n In Latin, levis<\/b> and gravis<\/b> are exact opposites in meaning (ANTONYMS): both refer to physical weight, but both can be used also in a moral or ethical sense (like our \u201clight\u201d and \u201cheavy\u201d reading). The English derivatives levity<\/i> and gravity<\/i> are similarly flexible, but the adjective grave<\/i> (= \u201cserious,\u201d \u201csolemn\u201d) is not applied to physical weight. This word grave<\/i>, derived from L gravis<\/b>, has no connection with the grave<\/i> in which one is buried; that is a Germanic homograph (\u00a712<\/a>), from OE gr\u00e6f<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"Chapter 4: Simple Latin Adjectives","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[52],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-620","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":580,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2007,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/620\/revisions\/2007"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/580"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/620\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/greeklatinroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}