Latin minimal pairs distinguished only by vowel length

Callaina

Feles Curiosissima

  • Civis Illustris

  • Patrona

Location:
Canada
Thanks -- fixed.
 

gedwimere

Active Member

uter (which of two) & ūter (bag or bottle made of an animal's hide)

I came across ūter in Bennett's Easy Latin Stories for Beginners.
 

Laurentius

Civis Illustris

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Location:
Lago Duria
uter (which of two) & ūter (bag or bottle made of an animal's hide)

I came across ūter in Bennett's Easy Latin Stories for Beginners.
Seems related to uterus, I wonder why the vowel quantity is different.
 

gedwimere

Active Member

nītor (I strive) & nĭtor (brightness)
nītēns & nĭtēns
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
Occīdo (kill, slay, be the ruin of) and Occido (die, be slain, be ruined)
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
Yes, but I thought occido was especially funny as the words are essentially active/passives of each other...
 

Laurentius

Civis Illustris

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Location:
Lago Duria
Yes, I think I thought about it in the past too! Good catch nonetheless, it's odd that none has thought about it so far.
 

Iáson

Cívis Illústris

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felix 'fern', 'pubic hair' vs. fēlīx 'fortunate'

fābulīs vs. fabulīs vs. fabūlis (fābula 'story', fabulus 'a small bean', fabūlis = fabālis 'belonging to beans')
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
Mora (delay) and mōra (blackberries, i.e. the pl. of mōrum).
Also the adjective mōrus meaning foolish.
Similarly there's the verbs moror and mōror which I may have already mentioned here.
 

Iáson

Cívis Illústris

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tribūlis 'fellow tribesman'
tribūlīs id. (acc. pl.)
trībulīs 'threshing sledge' (dat./abl. pl.)
tribulīs 'caltrop' (dat./abl. pl.)
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
how do you find these
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
I mean I guess you're bound to stumble across a couple of them by just randomly paging through the OLD
 

Iáson

Cívis Illústris

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sedēre 'to sit' (pres. infinitive sedeō 'sit')
sēdēre 'you are quieted' (= sēdēris, pres. subj. pass. 2nd pers. sēdō 'assuage, make quiet')
 

Glabrigausapes

Philistine

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Location:
Milwaukee
Do hope I'm not developing a reputation for such things (though I suppose a 'Rustic Man' is the most suited for it), but I can't keep silent na moe:

pede (ablative of pēs)
pēde (imperative of pēdo)
 

Iáson

Cívis Illústris

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colō 'cultivate'
cōlō 'filter', 'purify'
 

Iáson

Cívis Illústris

  • Civis Illustris

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