Idioms

[Pacifica]

Ventrem ferre: to bear a belly = to be pregnant.

Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1.34.

 

[Matthaeus]

viris equisque ---> "with horse and foot", "with might and main"

Cic. de Off. III.116

 

[Matthaeus]

aqua haeret ---> "the water stops", or "I am at a loss"

Cic. Off. III.117

 

[Pacifica]

I already posted that last one.

 

[Matthaeus]

Well, I don't remember that. Some people may not either.

 

[Pacifica]

De capsula = "out of a small box" = excessively neat, "out of a bandbox".

Seneca, letter CXV ad Lucilium (book 19).

 

[Hawkwood]

Just out of interest was "via longa est" ever used an an idiom in classical Latin?

 

[Pacifica]

I don't know. Via can have a figurative meaning as well, so it would certainly have made sense and looks like something possible to say, but I've personally never seen the expression as such.

 

[Hawkwood]

This thread is brilliant. I can't fathom why I've not stumbled onto it before to be honest.

 

[Pacifica]

Vix unus aut alter = "hardly one or another/a second one" = hardly anyone, very rare people.

Discovered in Pliny the Younger.

 

[Pacifica]

De summo pectore = "from the top of the heart" = "without much reflection"

Found in Gellius, XVII, 13.

 

[Pacifica]

Not really a classical Latin idiom (rather Christian), but:

Viam universae carnis ingredi = to walk the way of all flesh = to die.

 

[AoM]

I guess this is an idiom?

dare locum = to make way for / to give way

Aeneid (II.633): dant tela locum

 

[Araneus]

Ut qui maxime = more than anyone (?)

I don't know if it's an actual idiom, but I found it to be a strange formulation anyhow.

Found it in Tacitus' Germania ch. 10:
Auspicia sortesque ut qui maxime observant - Augury and divinations they heed more than anyone

 

[Imperfacundus]

Qui may just be 'they' referring to individuals mentions previously.
Maxime would be the 'more than anyone' all by itself.

 

[Pacifica]

No, it's just literally "as (those) who (do so) most".

 

[Imperfacundus]

Bah. So it's just auspicia sortesque, ut qui maxime (observant), observant.

 

[Pacifica]

Yes.

 

[Araneus]

Bah. So it's just auspicia sortesque, ut qui maxime (observant), observant.

Ah... quite simple. I didn't think of that. Typical Tacitean construction as well, letting one verb appear in one clause and be implicitly repeated in others.

And without the punctuation, you can't know which clause it's supposed to belong to, but then it doesn't matter because it belongs to both...

Thanks for clearing it up!

 

[Pacifica]

You can usually tell from the structure which clause it belongs to. Here it belongs to the main clause.