Stormy Weather II

[french frank]

... if as I suspect your conus is a cornus, as might be cornus mas, then the etymology takes us back to the Latin cornu - fourth declension, so plural cornua....

Are you certain about that? I think cornus is normally feminine - one of those 2nd declension feminines which includes certain trees eg fraxinus, ulmus. Your Wikipedia article gives various subspecies where a following adjective is, as expected, in the feminine form: cornus alba/fœmina/glabrata; peruviana/coreana &c.

Not that any of this affects their general appearance in the winter light.

[vinteuil]

Are you certain about that? I think cornus is normally feminine - one of those 2nd declension feminines which includes certain trees eg fraxinus, ulmus. Your Wikipedia article gives various subspecies where a following adjective is, as expected, in the feminine form: cornus alba/fœmina/glabrata; peruviana/coreana &c.

... you are of course right - cornus is second declension, plural corni. But ain't it ultimately an inflected form of cornu -

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cornu#Latin

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[french frank]

But ain't it ultimately an inflected form of cornu

My Johnson and Smith, Plant Names Simplified, suggests you are right - that it refers to the hardness of the wood as being like horn.

[jean]

... Latin cornu - fourth declension, so plural cornua...

To be pedantic, the plural is in -a like all neuter plutrals, whatever their declension. There are m. or f. 4th declension nouns in -us too, and an access.* masculine form cornus has been assumed, as has a 2nd decl. neuter cornum, -i, because of certain apparent incidences in classical authors.

(*access. is accessory not accessible. I wondered about that.)

Are you certain about that? I think cornus is normally feminine - one of those 2nd declension feminines which includes certain trees eg fraxinus, ulmus.

In the arboreal sense, it does belong to this group.

Here are two more (thank you for reminding me!)

Vides ut alta stet nive candidum
Soracte, nec iam sustineant onus
silvae laborantes, geluque
flumina constiterint acuto.

Dissolve frigus ligna super foco
large reponens atque benignius
deprome quadrimum Sabina,
o Thaliarche, merum diota.

Permitte divis cetera, qui simul
stravere ventos aequore fervido
deproeliantis, nec cupressi
nec veteres agitantur orni...

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[un barbu]

The weather in the Horace is fitting. Exactly fifty years ago to the day I was sitting an end of term examination on Horace (Odes III in this case), part of the syllabus in what was still called Humanity in the old Scottish universities. Prof Gordon Williams was our lecturer. Happy days.

[jean]

The weather in the Horace is fitting...

Isn't it!

But the person who did the translation in my link wouldn't have got away with while your bloom is absent from irritable
white hairs fifty years ago...I can't bring myself to look further!

[vinteuil]

Isn't it!

But the person who did the translation in my link wouldn't have got away with while your bloom is absent from irritable
white hairs fifty years ago...I can't bring myself to look further!

... indeed the translation provided for the last stanza is gruesome -

"and now the pleasing laughter betraying the
hidden girl in the most secret corner
and the pledge seized from the
badly resisting arms with a finger."



.[ I note that the blog is called "Lost in Translation" .... ]

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[BBMmk2]

Having to miss a carol concert this morning, what with the roads being icy etc and just having cataracts done. the weather may not be ideal for me, at the present. Pity, because our school choir is combining with Worth Abbey School. C/E with R/C schools.

Sunny today but very cold. I think minus 5C during the night!

[DracoM]

Well, Bbm, -9C at 5.30 a.m. here, and at the mo, -6C...........! greying over and bitter, so no sun left to warm even a bit.
We're all in this together, my friend!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

"Minus 6"??!!! Blimey! +2, clear skies, and the same lovely sunshine as yesterday here in this bit of the Pennines. (Dark cloud and heavy rain forecast for tomorrow, however - which'll raise the temperature, but ... )

[vinteuil]

Well, Bbm, -9C at 5.30 a.m. here, and at the mo, -6C...........! greying over and bitter, so no sun left to warm even a bit.
We're all in this together, my friend!

... only bicoz our benighted ancestors made the woeful decision to move north -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2990440

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[DracoM]

......but by 3 p.m.temp oop 'ere was actually -12C, a damp, drizzly / sleety grey afternoon, rawly chilly to the bone. Working in a warm office but steadily stiffening into cold. As nasty a p.m. as you could wish, not invasive like driving rain and wind, but still clutching and unfriendly.

[vinteuil]

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/3172394

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[Sir Velo]

......but by 3 p.m.temp oop 'ere was actually -12C, a damp, drizzly / sleety grey afternoon, rawly chilly to the bone. Working in a warm office but steadily stiffening into cold. As nasty a p.m. as you could wish, not invasive like driving rain and wind, but still clutching and unfriendly.

-12C? MINUS 12 CELSIUS????

The only place I can find that's currently that cold is here.

Make sure you light the samovar tonight.

[jean]

...oop 'ere...

Stop doing this.