Nescio Quis: A Little Latin for the Day

The Latin expression "nescio quis" has the potential meaning "somebody or other." It's often used in a contemptuous manner.

"Nescio quo pacto" denotes "in some way or other." Bennett's New Latin Grammar gives these examples:

Nescio quis forms a compound indefinite pronoun with the force of some one or other; as,—

    causidicus nescio quis, some pettifogger or other;

    mīsit nescio quem, he sent some one or other;

    nescio quō pactō, somehow or other.

See https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/bennett.html

Non nullus can be translated "not none," "some" or "several" (plural use).

Matthew 26:70 (Vulgate): at ille negavit coram omnibus dicens nescio quid dicis

Of course, in this passage, we have nescio, which is a 1st person verb.

Psalm 1:2 and the Torah

Latin Vulgate: Sed in lege Domini voluntas eius et in lege eius meditabitur die ac nocte (Psalm 1:2).

Douay-Rheims Translation: "But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night."

Amplified Bible: "But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night."

ASV: "But his delight is in the law of Jehovah; And on his law doth he meditate day and night."

The Cambridge History of the Bible states that ancient Judaism emphasized 'a renewed study of the Torah' after the book of Deuteronomy was written. We then read: "It [the Torah] was to be the Book of Meditation for every pious Jew, great and humble. Believed in its time to offer the most complete and up-to-date version of the 'Mosaic' code, it was to be the daily vade mecum of the king" (1:200). This information was written by G. Vermes, Reader of Jewish Studies at Oxford University during the year 1970.

Vermes then cites Deut. 17:18-19 where the King rather than a Levite priest is exhorted to make a copy of the Law and "read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD [YHWH] his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them."

Compare Joshua 1:7-8.

But the CHOB does not stop there. It shows that the previously mentioned hortatory dicta were "extended to all Israel" as shown by Ps. 1:2 and 1 QS VI, 6-7. It was only later that "this wide preoccupation with the Bible created a demand for authoritative interpreters, and a particular class of men emerged from the ranks of priests and Levites whose sole business was professional exegesis." See Ecclesiasticus 39:1-8 and Neh. 8:1-8. 

Consult Pirke Aboth and Jub. 23:26 as well (cf. Malachi 2:7). Jub. 23:26 foretold that "In those days, children shall begin to study the laws and to seek the commandments, and to return to the path of righteousness." This text and others like it show that the ancient rabbis thought everyone, yes even children, should zealously study the Torah.

John Chrysostom: "I also always entreat you, and do not cease entreating you, not only to pay attention here to what I say, but also when you are at home, to persevere continually in reading the divine Scriptures."

https://www.orthodox.net/journal/2011-09-08-saint-john-chrysostom-on-the-necessity-of-reading-scripture-daily.html

Latin Deponent Verbs (Buck and Hale)

Latin Deponent Verbs (from Buck and Hale, pages 93-4):

Conjugation I example: miror, mirari, miratus sum ("admire")

Conjugation II example: vereor, vereri, veritus sum ("fear")

Conjugation III example: sequor, sequi, secutus sum ("follow")

Conjugation IV example: partior, partiri, partitus sum ("share")

Important to know when reading Latin literature, including the Vulgate.

De + the Ablative Case (Brief Remarks About Latin)

Cyprian of Carthage uses patre (ablative singular of pater) with the preposition, de. I guess the whole expression is "De Patre et Filio et Spiritu Sancto scriptum est - Et hi tres unum sunt." So, a question arises concerning what kind of ablative this construction is.

De + the ablative is a standard construction in Latin and it frequently occurs among the ante/post-Nicene Fathers. I teach students about de re and de dicto utterances; many of the ecclesiastical works in Latin also have de + the ablative constructions. For instance, De Trinitate by Augustine of Hippo, Novatian of Rome and Hilary of Poitiers, also De Civitate Dei by Augustine and so forth. Other familiar constructs are de facto and de jure.

De + patre can be rendered "of, about, concerning or regarding the Father." Basil Gildersleeve calls this usage, an ablative of object (section 417.5), which he distinguishes from the ablative of reference ("according to"). Another source classifies de + the ablative as a figurative use of de since the preposition is used elsewhere to reference a literal place (e.g., dē caelō dēmissus). See https://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/uses-prepositions#rfn3

There is also a good explanation here: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DD%3Aentry+group%3D3%3Aentry%3Dde2

Lewis and Short explain that de + the ablative eventually came to replace the genitive and its object: they write that de along with the ablative is able to "indicate the thing with reference to which any thing is done, with respect to, concerning."

Latin and the Allative Case

Maybe some of you already know about the "allative case," but I only learned this term within the past year. According to the SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms, "Allative case is a case that expresses motion to or toward the referent of the noun it marks."

Also from lexico.com concerning "allative":

Mid 19th century; earliest use found in Quarterly Journal Education. From post-classical Latin allativus, designating the case expressing motion to or toward (1826 or earlier; earlier in sense ‘for bringing’) from classical Latin allāt-, past participial stem of afferre to bring to + -īvus.

It seems that Latin might not have the allative case or lost it over time, but the language possibly found ways to communicate similar ideas through merged cases. Early Greek apparently made use of the allative case, which is an extension of the locative case. I guess the difference is that motion towards an object is indicated by the case ending with the allative whereas the five-case system in Greek doesn't always do this explicitly. 

I also read section 427 in Allen and Greenough: it's provides some help. A & G give these examples inter alia for how Latin indicates motion to or toward an object:

bellī, mīlitiae, and domī; terrā marīque is another good one.

The Latin Pluperfect Passive Indicative and the Latin Vulgate

Latin forms the pluperfect passive indicative by compounding the perfect passive participle with the imperfect tense of sum (the "to be" verb). Here are the principal parts of the verb, porto:

porto, portare, portavi, portatus ("carry").

Examples of the pluperfect passive indicative:

1) portatus eram ("I had been carried")-1st person singular
2) portati eramus ("We had been carried")-1st person plural

I've been looking for a scriptural example of the pluperfect passive indicative, and there may be one or more, but I've noticed that the Vulgate tends to translate Greek pluperfects with Latin participles or a form of the perfect. 

If you ever look into Latin pluperfects, it's good to know that some books call them, past perfects.

De Re and De Dicto in Latin

The de re and de dicto distinction became important during the Middle Ages and still has relevance today in modal logic. Additionally, de re and de dicto illustrate how de + the ablative case can function in Latin: "de" in this context can be translated "of, concerning, respecting, about" for both phrases (de re and de dicto). Both re and dicto are ablative forms (respectively of res and dictum), so when the noun is coupled with the preposition, de re could be translated "of the thing" or "concerning the thing." On the other hand, de dicto is "concerning the statement/utterance/word" or "of the statement/utterance/word." I hope this illustrates how writers can use de + the ablative to state something concerning or about an object whereas the de re and de dicto distinction is used to describe either a thing, an utterance or part of an utterance. A question that we can ask about an utterance is whether the thing is meant (i.e., whether the utterance is de re) or whether the utterance itself is being emphasized (i.e., the de dicto sense of the utterance). As a side point but related to theology, numerous Patristic writers employ de in the titles of their works (e.g., De Trinitate, De civitate Dei) and Thomas Aquinas wrote De ente et essentia.

Alvin Plantinga (The Nature of Necessity): "An assertion of modality de dicto predicates a modal property of another dictum or proposition, while a claim of modality de re asserts of an object that it possess a property either essentially or contingently."

Consider the possible difference between the two statements:

1) Necessarily, the number nine is odd.

2) The number nine is odd.

SOV, SVO, and VSO Languages

When studying languages, we can only speak in generalities or in terms of patterns, not strict rules per se. In this entry, I will briefly discuss what sentence structure/syntax one might expect when reading or studying ancient languages. My chief interest is biblical languages or the metalanguage by means of which one expresses or translates the grammar of biblical languages (e.g., English).

S = subject, V = verb, and O = object.

1. Latin-Most sentences in old Latin prose assume a SOV structure (e.g., "Puer canem videt," "Agricola taurum fugat" and "Cicero Corneliam ferit"). Like many languages, Latin's syntactical arrangement changed over time to become more SVO. However, as stated before, one is more likely to see the subject (Canis), object (hominem), and verb (mordet) in older Latin prose.

2. Ancient Greek-Sentences in ancient Greek mainly appear with SOV structure but Koine apparently gravitates toward SVO. See Ann Taylor, "The Change from SOV to SVO in Ancient Greek," pages 1-37; compare Iliad 1.254 and Herodotus 3.27.1.

3. English-Sentences in English tend to follow a SVO structure (e.g., "The cat is sitting on the mat" or "The farmer tills the ground"). Word order is more important in English than in Latin due to the case endings in Latin.

4. Classical Hebrew-This Semitic language normally or mainly has VSO structure. See Genesis 1:1: בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃.