by a letter

letter, epistle, missive, message.

letter, epistle, missive, message

letter (of the alphabet).

letter, document.

littĕra (less correctly lītĕra), ae, f. [lino, q. v.], a letter, a written sign or mark signifying a sound.

Lit.:

cubitum hercle longis litteris signabo jam usquequaque, si quis, etc.,

Plaut. Rud. 5, 2, 7:

quid hae locuntur litterae?

id. Bacch. 4, 7, 3; cf.: quid istae narrant? Tox. Perconctare ex ipsis;

ipsae tibi narrabunt,

id. Pers. 4, 3, 29:

sus rostro si humi A litteram impresserit,

Cic. Div. 1, 13, 23:

priscarum litterarum notae,

id. ib. 2, 41, 85:

maximis litteris incisum,

id. Verr. 2, 2, 63, § 154 fin.:

lenis appellatio litterarum,

id. Brut. 74, 159:

suavis appellatio litterarum,

Quint. 11, 3, 35:

quae si nostris litteris scribantur,

id. 12, 10, 28 litterarum ordine, in alphabetical order, Plin. 37, 9, 54, § 138:

verba primis litteris notare, Prob. de Not. Signif. 1 Huschke: digerere in litteram,

to arrange alphabetically, Sen. Ep. 68, 18: scire litteras, [p. 1072] to be able to read and write, Plaut. Truc. 4, 2, 23; Vitr. 1, 1, 14:

nescire litteras,

not to be able to read and write, id. Clem. 2, 1, 2; Suet. Ner. 10:

scribere aureis litteris,

Gai. Inst. 2, 77:

scientia litterarum,

the art of writing, Dig. 29, 2, 93:

facere litteram or litteras,

to write, Plaut. As. 4, 1, 22; Cic. Ac. 2, 2, 6.—In the language of comedy:

homo trium litterarum, i. e. fur,

a thief, Plaut. Aul. 2, 4, 46: litteram ex se longam facere, i. e. to make an I by hanging perpendicularly, to hang one's self:

neque quicquam meliust mihi, ut opinor, quam ex me ut faciam litteram longam, meum laqueo collum quando obstrinxero,

id. ib. 1, 1, 37:

littera salutaris, i. e. A. (absolvo) and tristis, i. e. C. (condemno), which were put on the voting-tablets,

Cic. Mil. 6, 15.—

Transf.

A word, a line:

ad me litteram numquam misit,

Cic. Fam. 2, 17, 6: ad litteram, word for word, literally:

locum ad litteram subjeci,

Quint. 9, 1, 15.—

A handwriting:

Alexidis manum amabam, quod tam prope accedebat ad similitudinem tuae litterae,

Cic. Att. 7, 2, 3; cf.:

arguit ipsorum quos littera,

Juv. 13, 138 (v. also infra B. 1. fin.).—

Usually plur.

Littĕrae, ārum, f., a letter, epistle: litteras resignare, to unseal or open a letter, Plaut. Trin. 3, 3, 65:

ut litterarum ego harum sermonem audio,

id. Ps. 1, 1, 97; Cic. Att. 1, 13, 1:

dare alicui litteras ad aliquem,

id. Cat. 3, 4, 9:

litteras mittere,

id. Att. 5, 21, 2:

reddere alicui,

id. ib. 5, 21, 4:

accipere,

id. ib. 5, 21, 7:

remittere,

id. ib. 11, 16, 4:

nullas iis praeterquam ad te et ad Brutum dedi litteras,

id. Fam. 3, 7, 1:

queri apud aliquem per litteras,

id. Att. 5, 21, 13: invitare aliquem perlitteras id. ib. 13, 2, 2:

civitatum animos litteris temptare,

Caes. B. C. 1, 40, 1: litterae missae, a letter sent by a person: litterae allatae, a letter received: hence, liber litterarum missarum et allatarum, a letter-book:

L. M. (i. e. litterae missae)... L. A. (i. e. litterae allatae), etc.,

Cic. Font. 4, 8; id. Verr. 2, 3, 71, § 167.—In poets also sometimes in sing.:

quam legis a rapta Briseide littera venit,

Ov. H. 3, 1; 5, 2; id. M. 9, 515; Tib. 3, 2, 27; Mart. 10, 73 al.—

A writing, document, paper:

litterae publicae,

Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 63, § 140; 2, 4, 16, § 35; esp. a written acknowledgment:

littera poscetur,

Ov. A. A. 1, 428.—

An account-book:

ratio omnis et litterae,

Cic. Quint. 11, 37; id. Verr. 2, 4, 12, § 27.—

An edict, ordinance:

praetoris litterae,

Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 22, § 56:

litteras revocavit,

letter of appointment, commission, Suet. Vesp. 8. —

Written monuments, records, literature:

abest historia litteris nostris,

is wanting in our literature, Cic. Leg. 1, 2, 5:

Graecae de philosophia litterae,

philosophical literature, id. Div. 2, 2, 5:

genus hoc scriptionis nondum satis Latinis litteris illustratae,

id. Brut. 64, 228; id. Tusc. 1, 1, 1; id. Fin. 1, 2, 4:

Graecis litteris studere,

id. Brut. 20, 78:

damnum Hortensii interitu Latinae litterae fecerunt,

id. ib. 33, 125:

nullam artem litteris sine interprete et sine aliqua exercitatione percipi posse,

merely from books, id. Fam. 7, 19:

quod litteris exstet, Pherecydes primum dixit animos hominum esse sempiternos,

id. Tusc. 1, 16, 38:

parvae et rarae per eadem tempora litterae fuere,

Liv. 6, 1, 2; 7, 3, 6:

Etruscae,

id. 9, 36, 3:

paucissimos adhuc eloquentes litterae Romanae tulerunt,

Quint. 10, 1, 123: amor litterarum, id. prooem. 6.—

History, inasmuch as it is derived from written monuments:

cupidissimus litterarum fuit,

Nep. Cat. 3, 1; id. Pelop. 1:

parvae et rarae per eadem tempora litterae fuere,

Liv. 6, 1.—

Literary labor, composition:

omnis varietas litterarum mearum,

Cic. Fam. 15, 4, 12:

non nihil temporis tribuit litteris,

Nep. Hann. 13, 2.—

An inscription, Ov. M. 11, 706.—

Learning, the sciences, liberal education, scholarship, letters:

sit mihi orator tinctus litteris: audierit aliquid, legerit,

Cic. de Or. 2, 20, 85:

erant in eo plurimae litterae,

id. Brut. 76, 265:

homo communium litterarum, et politioris humanitatis non expers,

id. de Or. 2, 7, 28:

homo sine ingenio, sine litteris,

id. Verr. 2, 4, 44, § 98:

fuit in illo ingenium, ratio, memoria, litterae, cura, cogitatio, diligentia,

id. Phil. 2, 45, 116:

mihi nihil libri, nihil litterae, nihil doctrina prodest,

id. Att. 9, 10, 2:

litterarum scientia,

id. Brut. 42, 153:

litterarum coguitio,

id. de Or. 3, 32, 127: nescire litteras, to be without a liberal education, id. Brut. 74, 259:

altiores litterae,

magic, Plin. 14, 4, 5, § 51.—Comically of the art of love: Litteras didicisti;

quando scis, sine alios discere,

Plaut. Truc. 4, 2, 22.

littĕra (less correctly lītĕra), ae, f. [lino, q. v.], a letter, a written sign or mark signifying a sound.

Lit.:

cubitum hercle longis litteris signabo jam usquequaque, si quis, etc.,

Plaut. Rud. 5, 2, 7:

quid hae locuntur litterae?

id. Bacch. 4, 7, 3; cf.: quid istae narrant? Tox. Perconctare ex ipsis;

ipsae tibi narrabunt,

id. Pers. 4, 3, 29:

sus rostro si humi A litteram impresserit,

Cic. Div. 1, 13, 23:

priscarum litterarum notae,

id. ib. 2, 41, 85:

maximis litteris incisum,

id. Verr. 2, 2, 63, § 154 fin.:

lenis appellatio litterarum,

id. Brut. 74, 159:

suavis appellatio litterarum,

Quint. 11, 3, 35:

quae si nostris litteris scribantur,

id. 12, 10, 28 litterarum ordine, in alphabetical order, Plin. 37, 9, 54, § 138:

verba primis litteris notare, Prob. de Not. Signif. 1 Huschke: digerere in litteram,

to arrange alphabetically, Sen. Ep. 68, 18: scire litteras, [p. 1072] to be able to read and write, Plaut. Truc. 4, 2, 23; Vitr. 1, 1, 14:

nescire litteras,

not to be able to read and write, id. Clem. 2, 1, 2; Suet. Ner. 10:

scribere aureis litteris,

Gai. Inst. 2, 77:

scientia litterarum,

the art of writing, Dig. 29, 2, 93:

facere litteram or litteras,

to write, Plaut. As. 4, 1, 22; Cic. Ac. 2, 2, 6.—In the language of comedy:

homo trium litterarum, i. e. fur,

a thief, Plaut. Aul. 2, 4, 46: litteram ex se longam facere, i. e. to make an I by hanging perpendicularly, to hang one's self:

neque quicquam meliust mihi, ut opinor, quam ex me ut faciam litteram longam, meum laqueo collum quando obstrinxero,

id. ib. 1, 1, 37:

littera salutaris, i. e. A. (absolvo) and tristis, i. e. C. (condemno), which were put on the voting-tablets,

Cic. Mil. 6, 15.—

Transf.

A word, a line:

ad me litteram numquam misit,

Cic. Fam. 2, 17, 6: ad litteram, word for word, literally:

locum ad litteram subjeci,

Quint. 9, 1, 15.—

A handwriting:

Alexidis manum amabam, quod tam prope accedebat ad similitudinem tuae litterae,

Cic. Att. 7, 2, 3; cf.:

arguit ipsorum quos littera,

Juv. 13, 138 (v. also infra B. 1. fin.).—

Usually plur.

Littĕrae, ārum, f., a letter, epistle: litteras resignare, to unseal or open a letter, Plaut. Trin. 3, 3, 65:

ut litterarum ego harum sermonem audio,

id. Ps. 1, 1, 97; Cic. Att. 1, 13, 1:

dare alicui litteras ad aliquem,

id. Cat. 3, 4, 9:

litteras mittere,

id. Att. 5, 21, 2:

reddere alicui,

id. ib. 5, 21, 4:

accipere,

id. ib. 5, 21, 7:

remittere,

id. ib. 11, 16, 4:

nullas iis praeterquam ad te et ad Brutum dedi litteras,

id. Fam. 3, 7, 1:

queri apud aliquem per litteras,

id. Att. 5, 21, 13: invitare aliquem perlitteras id. ib. 13, 2, 2:

civitatum animos litteris temptare,

Caes. B. C. 1, 40, 1: litterae missae, a letter sent by a person: litterae allatae, a letter received: hence, liber litterarum missarum et allatarum, a letter-book:

L. M. (i. e. litterae missae)... L. A. (i. e. litterae allatae), etc.,

Cic. Font. 4, 8; id. Verr. 2, 3, 71, § 167.—In poets also sometimes in sing.:

quam legis a rapta Briseide littera venit,

Ov. H. 3, 1; 5, 2; id. M. 9, 515; Tib. 3, 2, 27; Mart. 10, 73 al.—

A writing, document, paper:

litterae publicae,

Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 63, § 140; 2, 4, 16, § 35; esp. a written acknowledgment:

littera poscetur,

Ov. A. A. 1, 428.—

An account-book:

ratio omnis et litterae,

Cic. Quint. 11, 37; id. Verr. 2, 4, 12, § 27.—

An edict, ordinance:

praetoris litterae,

Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 22, § 56:

litteras revocavit,

letter of appointment, commission, Suet. Vesp. 8. —

Written monuments, records, literature:

abest historia litteris nostris,

is wanting in our literature, Cic. Leg. 1, 2, 5:

Graecae de philosophia litterae,

philosophical literature, id. Div. 2, 2, 5:

genus hoc scriptionis nondum satis Latinis litteris illustratae,

id. Brut. 64, 228; id. Tusc. 1, 1, 1; id. Fin. 1, 2, 4:

Graecis litteris studere,

id. Brut. 20, 78:

damnum Hortensii interitu Latinae litterae fecerunt,

id. ib. 33, 125:

nullam artem litteris sine interprete et sine aliqua exercitatione percipi posse,

merely from books, id. Fam. 7, 19:

quod litteris exstet, Pherecydes primum dixit animos hominum esse sempiternos,

id. Tusc. 1, 16, 38:

parvae et rarae per eadem tempora litterae fuere,

Liv. 6, 1, 2; 7, 3, 6:

Etruscae,

id. 9, 36, 3:

paucissimos adhuc eloquentes litterae Romanae tulerunt,

Quint. 10, 1, 123: amor litterarum, id. prooem. 6.—

History, inasmuch as it is derived from written monuments:

cupidissimus litterarum fuit,

Nep. Cat. 3, 1; id. Pelop. 1:

parvae et rarae per eadem tempora litterae fuere,

Liv. 6, 1.—

Literary labor, composition:

omnis varietas litterarum mearum,

Cic. Fam. 15, 4, 12:

non nihil temporis tribuit litteris,

Nep. Hann. 13, 2.—

An inscription, Ov. M. 11, 706.—

Learning, the sciences, liberal education, scholarship, letters:

sit mihi orator tinctus litteris: audierit aliquid, legerit,

Cic. de Or. 2, 20, 85:

erant in eo plurimae litterae,

id. Brut. 76, 265:

homo communium litterarum, et politioris humanitatis non expers,

id. de Or. 2, 7, 28:

homo sine ingenio, sine litteris,

id. Verr. 2, 4, 44, § 98:

fuit in illo ingenium, ratio, memoria, litterae, cura, cogitatio, diligentia,

id. Phil. 2, 45, 116:

mihi nihil libri, nihil litterae, nihil doctrina prodest,

id. Att. 9, 10, 2:

litterarum scientia,

id. Brut. 42, 153:

litterarum coguitio,

id. de Or. 3, 32, 127: nescire litteras, to be without a liberal education, id. Brut. 74, 259:

altiores litterae,

magic, Plin. 14, 4, 5, § 51.—Comically of the art of love: Litteras didicisti;

quando scis, sine alios discere,

Plaut. Truc. 4, 2, 22.

S, s, indecl. n. or (agreeing with littera) f.

The eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, corresponding in form to the old Greek S for S (Etruscan in a reversed form,);

in its nature a sibilant semi-vowel, whose peculiarities were much discussed by the ancients, and are even treated of in a special work by Messala, a contemporary of Augustus (Messala in libro de S littera,

Quint. 1, 7, 23; cf. Mart. Cap. 3, § 245).—

As an initial and medial it has a hard and sharp sound (which is softened, however, between two vowels), and is therefore joined only with the tenues (c, p, t; cf., on the contrary, the Gr. sbennumi);

and, as a medial, often written double after long vowels: caussa, cassus, divissiones (these forms, used by Cicero and Vergil, were already uncommon in Quintilian's time,

Quint. 1, 7, 20; v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 283 sq.).—

As a final it had a weakened sound, and therefore not only admitted the medial b before it (plebs, urbs, abs; Arabs, chalybs, etc.; v. the letter B), but often entirely disappeared. So in the ante-class. poets down to the early years of Cicero (and also in his own poem, entitled Aratus, written in his youth), before words beginning with a consonant, to avoid position: Ratu' Romulus, Fulviu' Nobilior, gravi' Terra, est sati' bella, Hyperioni' cursum, Virgine' nam sibi, etc.; cf. Cic. Or. 48, 161; Quint. 9, 4, 38; and v. Freund, in Jahn's Neue Jahrb. 1835, XIII. p. 25 sq.; less freq. before words beginning with a vowel, in which case, to avoid a hiatus, the vowel before s was also elided; vas' argenteis (for vasis argenteis) and palm' et crinibus (for palmis et crinibus); v. Cic. Or. 45, 153. So, too, in the fourth Epitaph of the Scipios (Inscr. Orell. 553), L. CORNELIO L. F. instead of CORNELIOS (cf. a similar elision of the M under that letter). Final s is also elided, and the preceding vowel either dropped with it or weakened, in the forms sat from satis, mage from magis; in the neutr. forms of adjectives of the third declension, acre, agreste, facile (v. the letter E); in the collat. forms of the sec. pers. sing. pass., fatere, fateare, fatebare, etc.; in the gen. sing. of the first, second, and fifth declensions, and in the nom. plur. of the first and second declensions (aurai for aura-is, analog. to reg is, etc.). Lastly, s disappears in the (mostly familiar) collat. forms abin', scin', viden', satin', from abisne, scisne, videsne, satisne, etc.—

As an etymological initial aspirate, s appears in many words whose Greek equivalents begin with a vowel: sal, semi-, serpo, sex, super, sus, corresp. to hals, hêmi-, herpô, hex, huper, us, etc.; si (archaic sei), sero, Segesta, corresp. to ei, ERÔ (whence eirô), Egesta. Less freq. in radical words beginning with a consonant: sculpo corresp. to gluphô, and the derivatives scruta, from grutê, and scrupedae, from kroupeza. To soften the termination, s appears in abs = ab, and ex corresp. to ek.—Very freq., on the contrary, an initial s appears in cognate forms in other languages, where corresp. Latin words have lost the s: Lat. fallo, Gr. sphallô; fungus, Gr. sphongos; fides, Gr. sphidê (comp. also nix with Engl. [p. 1609] snow, nurus with old Germ. snur, daughterin-law); cf. also cutis and scutum; cauda and root sku-, in Goth. skauts, etc.; casa and Gr. skia, skênê; cerno and Gr. krinô for skirnô, skôr, skôria; calumnia and skallô; gradior and root scra-, Germ. schreiten; parco and sparnos; penuria and spanis; pando and spaô; tego and stegô; tono and stonos; taurus and Sanscr. sthūras, Germ. Stier al.; v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, p. 277 sqq.—In the middle of a word s is dropped in at from ast.—

S is interchanged,

Most freq. with r; in partic., an original s, between two vowels, becomes r; v. Varr. L. L. 7, § 26 Müll.; so foederum for foedesum, plurima for plusima, meliorem for meliosem, Lares for Lases, etc.; cf. eram and sum, quaero and quaeso, nasus and naris. Appius Claudius, the censor, is said to have introduced r into the names Furius, Valerius, etc., in place of s, B.C. 312 (v. the letter R, II.).—

With d: Claudius, from the Sabine Clausus; and, on the other hand, rosa, corresp. to the Gr. rhodon; cf. Schneid. Gram. 1, p. 259.—

With t: tensus and tentus, resina corresp. to rhêtinê; and, on the contrary, aggrettus for aggressus; mertare, pultare, for mersare, pulsare (perh. also assentor for assensor).—

With x; v. that letter.—

S is assimilated before f in the compounds of dis: differo, difficilis, diffluo, etc.; v. 3. dis.— On the other hand, it arises by assimilation from d, in assum, assumo, cessi, for adsum, adsumo, ced-si; from t in fassus, from fateor; from b in jussi, from jubeo; from m in pressi, from premo; from r in gessi, from gero; and dossuarius, from dorsum. —

As an abbreviation, S denotes sacrum, semis, sibi, suis, etc.; S. AS. D., sub asciā dedicavit; S. C., senatusconsultum; perh. also, sententia collegii (Inscr. Orell. 2385); S. P., sua pecunia; S. P. Q. R., Senatus Populusque Romanus, etc.

S, s, indecl. n. or (agreeing with littera) f.

The eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, corresponding in form to the old Greek S for S (Etruscan in a reversed form,);

in its nature a sibilant semi-vowel, whose peculiarities were much discussed by the ancients, and are even treated of in a special work by Messala, a contemporary of Augustus (Messala in libro de S littera,

Quint. 1, 7, 23; cf. Mart. Cap. 3, § 245).—

As an initial and medial it has a hard and sharp sound (which is softened, however, between two vowels), and is therefore joined only with the tenues (c, p, t; cf., on the contrary, the Gr. sbennumi);

and, as a medial, often written double after long vowels: caussa, cassus, divissiones (these forms, used by Cicero and Vergil, were already uncommon in Quintilian's time,

Quint. 1, 7, 20; v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 283 sq.).—

As a final it had a weakened sound, and therefore not only admitted the medial b before it (plebs, urbs, abs; Arabs, chalybs, etc.; v. the letter B), but often entirely disappeared. So in the ante-class. poets down to the early years of Cicero (and also in his own poem, entitled Aratus, written in his youth), before words beginning with a consonant, to avoid position: Ratu' Romulus, Fulviu' Nobilior, gravi' Terra, est sati' bella, Hyperioni' cursum, Virgine' nam sibi, etc.; cf. Cic. Or. 48, 161; Quint. 9, 4, 38; and v. Freund, in Jahn's Neue Jahrb. 1835, XIII. p. 25 sq.; less freq. before words beginning with a vowel, in which case, to avoid a hiatus, the vowel before s was also elided; vas' argenteis (for vasis argenteis) and palm' et crinibus (for palmis et crinibus); v. Cic. Or. 45, 153. So, too, in the fourth Epitaph of the Scipios (Inscr. Orell. 553), L. CORNELIO L. F. instead of CORNELIOS (cf. a similar elision of the M under that letter). Final s is also elided, and the preceding vowel either dropped with it or weakened, in the forms sat from satis, mage from magis; in the neutr. forms of adjectives of the third declension, acre, agreste, facile (v. the letter E); in the collat. forms of the sec. pers. sing. pass., fatere, fateare, fatebare, etc.; in the gen. sing. of the first, second, and fifth declensions, and in the nom. plur. of the first and second declensions (aurai for aura-is, analog. to reg is, etc.). Lastly, s disappears in the (mostly familiar) collat. forms abin', scin', viden', satin', from abisne, scisne, videsne, satisne, etc.—

As an etymological initial aspirate, s appears in many words whose Greek equivalents begin with a vowel: sal, semi-, serpo, sex, super, sus, corresp. to hals, hêmi-, herpô, hex, huper, us, etc.; si (archaic sei), sero, Segesta, corresp. to ei, ERÔ (whence eirô), Egesta. Less freq. in radical words beginning with a consonant: sculpo corresp. to gluphô, and the derivatives scruta, from grutê, and scrupedae, from kroupeza. To soften the termination, s appears in abs = ab, and ex corresp. to ek.—Very freq., on the contrary, an initial s appears in cognate forms in other languages, where corresp. Latin words have lost the s: Lat. fallo, Gr. sphallô; fungus, Gr. sphongos; fides, Gr. sphidê (comp. also nix with Engl. [p. 1609] snow, nurus with old Germ. snur, daughterin-law); cf. also cutis and scutum; cauda and root sku-, in Goth. skauts, etc.; casa and Gr. skia, skênê; cerno and Gr. krinô for skirnô, skôr, skôria; calumnia and skallô; gradior and root scra-, Germ. schreiten; parco and sparnos; penuria and spanis; pando and spaô; tego and stegô; tono and stonos; taurus and Sanscr. sthūras, Germ. Stier al.; v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, p. 277 sqq.—In the middle of a word s is dropped in at from ast.—

S is interchanged,

Most freq. with r; in partic., an original s, between two vowels, becomes r; v. Varr. L. L. 7, § 26 Müll.; so foederum for foedesum, plurima for plusima, meliorem for meliosem, Lares for Lases, etc.; cf. eram and sum, quaero and quaeso, nasus and naris. Appius Claudius, the censor, is said to have introduced r into the names Furius, Valerius, etc., in place of s, B.C. 312 (v. the letter R, II.).—

With d: Claudius, from the Sabine Clausus; and, on the other hand, rosa, corresp. to the Gr. rhodon; cf. Schneid. Gram. 1, p. 259.—

With t: tensus and tentus, resina corresp. to rhêtinê; and, on the contrary, aggrettus for aggressus; mertare, pultare, for mersare, pulsare (perh. also assentor for assensor).—

With x; v. that letter.—

S is assimilated before f in the compounds of dis: differo, difficilis, diffluo, etc.; v. 3. dis.— On the other hand, it arises by assimilation from d, in assum, assumo, cessi, for adsum, adsumo, ced-si; from t in fassus, from fateor; from b in jussi, from jubeo; from m in pressi, from premo; from r in gessi, from gero; and dossuarius, from dorsum. —

As an abbreviation, S denotes sacrum, semis, sibi, suis, etc.; S. AS. D., sub asciā dedicavit; S. C., senatusconsultum; perh. also, sententia collegii (Inscr. Orell. 2385); S. P., sua pecunia; S. P. Q. R., Senatus Populusque Romanus, etc.

D, d (n. indecl., sometimes f. sc. littera), the flat dental mute, corresponding in character and sound to the English d and the Greek D, was the fourth letter of the Latin alphabet, and was called de: Ter. Maur. p. 2385 P., Auson. Idyll. 12, de Litt. Monos. 14. But at the end of a syllable, or after another consonant, its sound was sharpened, so that the grammarians often discuss the question whether d or t should be written, especially in conjunctions and prepositions. Illa quoque servata est a multis differentia, ut ad cum esset praepositio, d litteram, cum autem conjunctio, t acciperet (Quint. 1, 7, 5; cf. id. 1, 4, 16). Hence we may infer that some disputed this distinction, and that the sounds of ad and at must at least have been very similar (cf. also Terent. Scaur. p. 2250, Vel. Long. p. 2230 sq., Cassiod. p. 2287, 2291). Thus also aput, it, quit, quot, aliut, set, haut are found for apud, id, quid, quod, aliud, sed, haud. It would appear from the remarks of these authors that the last two words in particular, having a proclitic character, while they distinctly retained the d sound before an initial vowel in the following word, were pronounced before a consonant almost as set, haut (Mar. Vict. p. 2462 P., Vel. Long. l. l. v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 191 sq.). The use of t for d in the middle of a word, as Alexenter for Alexander, atnato for adnato, is very rare (cf. Wordsworth, Fragm. p. 486 sq.). On the other hand, the use of d for t, which sometimes appears in MSS. and inscrr., as ed, capud, essed, inquid (all of which occur in the Cod. palimps. of Cic. Rep.), adque, quodannis, sicud, etc., fecid, reliquid, etc. (all in inscriptions after the Augustan period), is to be ascribed to a later phonetic softening (cf. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 191 sq.).

As an initial, the letter d, in pure Latin words, suffers only a vowel after it; the single consonantal compound dr being found only in borrowed words, such as drama, Drusus, Druidae, etc., and in the two onomatopees drenso and drindio. Accordingly, the d of the initial dv, from du, was rejected, and the remaining v either retained unaltered (as in v iginti for du iginti; cf. triginta) or changed into b (as in b ellum, b is, b onus, for du ellum, du is, du onus; v. those words and the letter B). So too in and after the 4th century A.D., di before vowels was pronounced like j (cf. J ovis for Dj ovis, and J anus for Di anus); and hence, as the Greek di ( di) passed into dz, i. e. z (as in z a for d ia, and z eta for di aeta), we sometimes find the same name written in two or three ways, as Diabolenus, Jabolenus, Zabolenus; Jadera, Diadora, Zara. In many Greek words, however, which originally began with a y sound, d was prefixed by an instinctive effort to avoid a disagreeable utterance, just as in English the initial j has regularly assumed the sound of dj: thus Gr. zugon, i. e. diugon = L. jugum; and in such cases the d sound has been prefixed in Greek, not lost in Latin and other languages (v. Curt. Griech. Etym. p. 608 sq.).b. As a medial, d before most consonants undergoes assimilation; v. ad, no. II.; assum, init., and cf. iccirco, quippiam, quicquam, for idcirco, quidpiam, quidquam; and in contractions like cette from cedite, pelluviae from pediluviae, sella from sedela. In contractions, however, the d is sometimes dropped and a compensation effected by lengthening the preceding vowel, as scāla for scand-la. D before endings which begin with s was suppressed, as pes from ped-s, lapis from lapid-s, frons from frond-s, rasi from radsi, risi from rid-si, lusi from lud-si, clausi from claud-si; but in the second and third roots of cedo, and in the third roots of some other verbs, d is assimilated, as cessi, cessum, fossum, etc. D is also omitted before s in composition when another consonant follows the s, as ascendo, aspicio, asto, astringo, and so also before the nasal gn in agnatus, agnitus, and agnosco, from gnatus, etc.: but in other combinations it is assimilated, as assentio, acclamo, accresco; affligo, affrico; agglomero, aggrego; applico, approbo, etc. In tentum, from tendo, d is dropped to avoid the combination ndt or ntt, since euphony forbids a consonant to be doubled after another.g. Final d stood only in ad, apud, sed, and in the neuter pronouns quid, quod, illud, istud, and aliud, anciently alid. Otherwise, the ending d was considered barbarous, Prisc. p. 686 P.

The letter d represents regularly an original Indo-Germanic d, in Greek d, but which in German becomes z, in Gothic t, and in Anglo-Saxon t: cf. Gr. hêdomai, Sanscr. svad, Germ. süss, Angl.-Sax. svēte (sweet), with Lat. suadeo; domare with Gr. damaô, Germ. zähmen, Eng. tame; domus with demô, timber, O. H. Germ. zimber; duo with duô, zwei, two. But it is also interchanged with other sounds, and thus sometimes represents—

An original t: mendax from mentior; quadraginta, quadra, etc., from quatuor.—

An original r: ar and ad; apur or apor and apud; meridies and medidies, audio and auris; cf. arbiter, from ad-beto; arcesso for ad-cesso.—

An original l: adeps, Gr. aleipha; dacrima and lacrima, dingua and lingua; cf. on the contrary, olere for odere, consilium and considere, Ulixes from Odusseus (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 223).—

An original s: Claudius, from the Sabine Clausus, medius and misos; and, on the contrary, rosa and rhodon. —

A Greek th: fides, pistis; gaudere, gêtheô; vad-i-monium (from va-d-s, vadis), aethlon.

In the oldest period of the language d was the ending of the ablat. sing. and of the adverbs which were originally ablatives (cf. Ritschl, Neue Plaut. Excur. I.; Brix ad Plaut. Trin. Prol. 10): pu CNANDO, MARID, DICTATORED, IN ALTOD MARID, NAVALED PRAEDAD on the Col. Rostr.; DE SENATVOS SENTENTIAD (thrice) IN OQVOLTOD, IN POPLICOD, IN PREIVATOD, IN COVENTIONID, and the adverbs SVPRAD SCRIPTVM EST (thrice), EXSTRAD QVAM SEI, and even EXSTRAD VRBEM, in S. C. de Bacch. So intra-d, ultra-d, citra-d, contra-d, infra-d, supra-d; contro-d, intro-d, etc.; and probably interea-d, postea-d. Here too belongs, no doubt, the adverb FACILVMED, found in the last-mentioned inscription. But this use of the d became antiquated during the 3d century B.C., and is not found at all in any inscription after 186 B. C. Plautus seems to have used or omitted it at will (Ritschl, Neue Plaut. Excurs. p. 18: Corss. Ausspr. 1, 197; 2, 1008).

D final was also anciently found—

In the accus. sing. of the personal pronouns med, ted, sed: INTER SED CONIOVRASE and INTER SED DEDISE, for inter se conjuravisse and inter se dedisse, in the S. C. de Bacch. This usage was retained, at least as a license of verse, when the next word began with a vowel, even in the time of Plautus. But in the classic period this d no longer appears. —

In the imperative mood;

as estod,

Fest. p. 230. The Oscan language retained this ending (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 206).—

In the preposition se-, originally identical with the conjunction sed (it is retained in the compound seditio); also in red-, prod-, antid-, postid-, etc. ( redire, prodire, etc.); and in these words, too, it is a remnant of the ancient characteristic of the ablative (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 200 sq.; Roby, Lat. Gr. 1, 49).

As an abbreviation, D usually stands for the praenomen Decimus; also for Deus, Divus, Dominus, Decurio, etc.; over epitaphs, D. M. = Diis Manibus; over temple inscriptions, D. O. M. = Deo Optimo Maxumo; in the titles of the later emperors, D. N. = Dominus Noster, and DD. NN. = Domini Nostri. Before dates of letters, D signified dabam, and also dies; hence, a. d. = ante diem; in offerings to the gods, D. D. = dono or donum dedit; D. D. D. = dat, dicat, dedicat, etc. Cf. Orell. Inscr. II. p. 457 sq.

D, d (n. indecl., sometimes f. sc. littera), the flat dental mute, corresponding in character and sound to the English d and the Greek D, was the fourth letter of the Latin alphabet, and was called de: Ter. Maur. p. 2385 P., Auson. Idyll. 12, de Litt. Monos. 14. But at the end of a syllable, or after another consonant, its sound was sharpened, so that the grammarians often discuss the question whether d or t should be written, especially in conjunctions and prepositions. Illa quoque servata est a multis differentia, ut ad cum esset praepositio, d litteram, cum autem conjunctio, t acciperet (Quint. 1, 7, 5; cf. id. 1, 4, 16). Hence we may infer that some disputed this distinction, and that the sounds of ad and at must at least have been very similar (cf. also Terent. Scaur. p. 2250, Vel. Long. p. 2230 sq., Cassiod. p. 2287, 2291). Thus also aput, it, quit, quot, aliut, set, haut are found for apud, id, quid, quod, aliud, sed, haud. It would appear from the remarks of these authors that the last two words in particular, having a proclitic character, while they distinctly retained the d sound before an initial vowel in the following word, were pronounced before a consonant almost as set, haut (Mar. Vict. p. 2462 P., Vel. Long. l. l. v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 191 sq.). The use of t for d in the middle of a word, as Alexenter for Alexander, atnato for adnato, is very rare (cf. Wordsworth, Fragm. p. 486 sq.). On the other hand, the use of d for t, which sometimes appears in MSS. and inscrr., as ed, capud, essed, inquid (all of which occur in the Cod. palimps. of Cic. Rep.), adque, quodannis, sicud, etc., fecid, reliquid, etc. (all in inscriptions after the Augustan period), is to be ascribed to a later phonetic softening (cf. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 191 sq.).

As an initial, the letter d, in pure Latin words, suffers only a vowel after it; the single consonantal compound dr being found only in borrowed words, such as drama, Drusus, Druidae, etc., and in the two onomatopees drenso and drindio. Accordingly, the d of the initial dv, from du, was rejected, and the remaining v either retained unaltered (as in v iginti for du iginti; cf. triginta) or changed into b (as in b ellum, b is, b onus, for du ellum, du is, du onus; v. those words and the letter B). So too in and after the 4th century A.D., di before vowels was pronounced like j (cf. J ovis for Dj ovis, and J anus for Di anus); and hence, as the Greek di ( di) passed into dz, i. e. z (as in z a for d ia, and z eta for di aeta), we sometimes find the same name written in two or three ways, as Diabolenus, Jabolenus, Zabolenus; Jadera, Diadora, Zara. In many Greek words, however, which originally began with a y sound, d was prefixed by an instinctive effort to avoid a disagreeable utterance, just as in English the initial j has regularly assumed the sound of dj: thus Gr. zugon, i. e. diugon = L. jugum; and in such cases the d sound has been prefixed in Greek, not lost in Latin and other languages (v. Curt. Griech. Etym. p. 608 sq.).b. As a medial, d before most consonants undergoes assimilation; v. ad, no. II.; assum, init., and cf. iccirco, quippiam, quicquam, for idcirco, quidpiam, quidquam; and in contractions like cette from cedite, pelluviae from pediluviae, sella from sedela. In contractions, however, the d is sometimes dropped and a compensation effected by lengthening the preceding vowel, as scāla for scand-la. D before endings which begin with s was suppressed, as pes from ped-s, lapis from lapid-s, frons from frond-s, rasi from radsi, risi from rid-si, lusi from lud-si, clausi from claud-si; but in the second and third roots of cedo, and in the third roots of some other verbs, d is assimilated, as cessi, cessum, fossum, etc. D is also omitted before s in composition when another consonant follows the s, as ascendo, aspicio, asto, astringo, and so also before the nasal gn in agnatus, agnitus, and agnosco, from gnatus, etc.: but in other combinations it is assimilated, as assentio, acclamo, accresco; affligo, affrico; agglomero, aggrego; applico, approbo, etc. In tentum, from tendo, d is dropped to avoid the combination ndt or ntt, since euphony forbids a consonant to be doubled after another.g. Final d stood only in ad, apud, sed, and in the neuter pronouns quid, quod, illud, istud, and aliud, anciently alid. Otherwise, the ending d was considered barbarous, Prisc. p. 686 P.

The letter d represents regularly an original Indo-Germanic d, in Greek d, but which in German becomes z, in Gothic t, and in Anglo-Saxon t: cf. Gr. hêdomai, Sanscr. svad, Germ. süss, Angl.-Sax. svēte (sweet), with Lat. suadeo; domare with Gr. damaô, Germ. zähmen, Eng. tame; domus with demô, timber, O. H. Germ. zimber; duo with duô, zwei, two. But it is also interchanged with other sounds, and thus sometimes represents—

An original t: mendax from mentior; quadraginta, quadra, etc., from quatuor.—

An original r: ar and ad; apur or apor and apud; meridies and medidies, audio and auris; cf. arbiter, from ad-beto; arcesso for ad-cesso.—

An original l: adeps, Gr. aleipha; dacrima and lacrima, dingua and lingua; cf. on the contrary, olere for odere, consilium and considere, Ulixes from Odusseus (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 223).—

An original s: Claudius, from the Sabine Clausus, medius and misos; and, on the contrary, rosa and rhodon. —

A Greek th: fides, pistis; gaudere, gêtheô; vad-i-monium (from va-d-s, vadis), aethlon.

In the oldest period of the language d was the ending of the ablat. sing. and of the adverbs which were originally ablatives (cf. Ritschl, Neue Plaut. Excur. I.; Brix ad Plaut. Trin. Prol. 10): pu CNANDO, MARID, DICTATORED, IN ALTOD MARID, NAVALED PRAEDAD on the Col. Rostr.; DE SENATVOS SENTENTIAD (thrice) IN OQVOLTOD, IN POPLICOD, IN PREIVATOD, IN COVENTIONID, and the adverbs SVPRAD SCRIPTVM EST (thrice), EXSTRAD QVAM SEI, and even EXSTRAD VRBEM, in S. C. de Bacch. So intra-d, ultra-d, citra-d, contra-d, infra-d, supra-d; contro-d, intro-d, etc.; and probably interea-d, postea-d. Here too belongs, no doubt, the adverb FACILVMED, found in the last-mentioned inscription. But this use of the d became antiquated during the 3d century B.C., and is not found at all in any inscription after 186 B. C. Plautus seems to have used or omitted it at will (Ritschl, Neue Plaut. Excurs. p. 18: Corss. Ausspr. 1, 197; 2, 1008).

D final was also anciently found—

In the accus. sing. of the personal pronouns med, ted, sed: INTER SED CONIOVRASE and INTER SED DEDISE, for inter se conjuravisse and inter se dedisse, in the S. C. de Bacch. This usage was retained, at least as a license of verse, when the next word began with a vowel, even in the time of Plautus. But in the classic period this d no longer appears. —

In the imperative mood;

as estod,

Fest. p. 230. The Oscan language retained this ending (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 206).—

In the preposition se-, originally identical with the conjunction sed (it is retained in the compound seditio); also in red-, prod-, antid-, postid-, etc. ( redire, prodire, etc.); and in these words, too, it is a remnant of the ancient characteristic of the ablative (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 200 sq.; Roby, Lat. Gr. 1, 49).

As an abbreviation, D usually stands for the praenomen Decimus; also for Deus, Divus, Dominus, Decurio, etc.; over epitaphs, D. M. = Diis Manibus; over temple inscriptions, D. O. M. = Deo Optimo Maxumo; in the titles of the later emperors, D. N. = Dominus Noster, and DD. NN. = Domini Nostri. Before dates of letters, D signified dabam, and also dies; hence, a. d. = ante diem; in offerings to the gods, D. D. = dono or donum dedit; D. D. D. = dat, dicat, dedicat, etc. Cf. Orell. Inscr. II. p. 457 sq.

H, h, the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet and the weakest guttural. The sign is borrowed from the Greek, in which H was the old form of the spiritus asper, corresp. to the Latin H-sound (HEKATON, hekaton, ÊOS, hos, etc.). Even some of the ancients doubted whether the Latin H was properly a letter:

si H littera est, non nota,

Quint. 1, 5, 19; cf.:

H litteram, sive illam spiritum magis quam litteram dici oportet, etc.,

Gell. 2, 3, 1. Before the fall of the republic, the sound of H before vowels became so weak that it was frequently omitted in writing; and this weakness became more marked in many words in the time of the empire; cf.: aheneus and aeneus; cohors and coörs; prehendo and prendo; vehemens and vemens, etc. (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 96 sqq.).As an initial and medial, H may be combined with any vowel, but the orthography, in this respect, was inconstant: thus we have herus and erus; honus, honera, and onus, onera; harundo and arundo; and even hac for ac (Inscr. Orell. 23); aruspex and haruspex; ercisco, erctum, and hercisco, herctum; aheneus and aëneus; Annibal and Hannibal; Adria and Hadria, etc.; v. Gell. l. l.—As a sign for the aspiration of the consonants c, p, r, and t (as in Greek the aspirates ch, ph, th were originally designated by KH, HH, TH), H first came into use in the seventh century of Rome; cf. Cic. Or. 48, 160; and v. the letter C.— Medial h is often dropped.—As a final, h occurs only in the interjections ah and vah.In the formation of words, h was changed into c before t, as tractum from traho; vectum from veho; and coalesced with s into x, as traxi, vexi; cf. also onyx from onych-s; v. the letter X.As an abbreviation, H. denotes hic, haec, hoc, hujus, etc.; habet, heres, honor, etc. HH. heredes. H. AQ. hic acquiescit. H. B. M. heredes bene merenti. H. C. Hispania citerior or hic condiderunt. H. E. T. heres ex testamento. H. F. C. heres faciundum curavit. H. L. hunc locum. H. L. ET. M. H. N. S. hic locus et monumentum heredem non sequitur. H. M. S. D. M. hoc monumentum sine dolo malo. H. S. E. hic situs est. H. S. F. hoc sibi fecit, etc.; v. Inscr. Orell. II. p. 461 sq.

for sestertium does not strictly belong here, because H is not the letter of that shape, but the numeral II. crossed; v. sestertius init.

H, h, the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet and the weakest guttural. The sign is borrowed from the Greek, in which H was the old form of the spiritus asper, corresp. to the Latin H-sound (HEKATON, hekaton, ÊOS, hos, etc.). Even some of the ancients doubted whether the Latin H was properly a letter:

si H littera est, non nota,

Quint. 1, 5, 19; cf.:

H litteram, sive illam spiritum magis quam litteram dici oportet, etc.,

Gell. 2, 3, 1. Before the fall of the republic, the sound of H before vowels became so weak that it was frequently omitted in writing; and this weakness became more marked in many words in the time of the empire; cf.: aheneus and aeneus; cohors and coörs; prehendo and prendo; vehemens and vemens, etc. (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 96 sqq.).As an initial and medial, H may be combined with any vowel, but the orthography, in this respect, was inconstant: thus we have herus and erus; honus, honera, and onus, onera; harundo and arundo; and even hac for ac (Inscr. Orell. 23); aruspex and haruspex; ercisco, erctum, and hercisco, herctum; aheneus and aëneus; Annibal and Hannibal; Adria and Hadria, etc.; v. Gell. l. l.—As a sign for the aspiration of the consonants c, p, r, and t (as in Greek the aspirates ch, ph, th were originally designated by KH, HH, TH), H first came into use in the seventh century of Rome; cf. Cic. Or. 48, 160; and v. the letter C.— Medial h is often dropped.—As a final, h occurs only in the interjections ah and vah.In the formation of words, h was changed into c before t, as tractum from traho; vectum from veho; and coalesced with s into x, as traxi, vexi; cf. also onyx from onych-s; v. the letter X.As an abbreviation, H. denotes hic, haec, hoc, hujus, etc.; habet, heres, honor, etc. HH. heredes. H. AQ. hic acquiescit. H. B. M. heredes bene merenti. H. C. Hispania citerior or hic condiderunt. H. E. T. heres ex testamento. H. F. C. heres faciundum curavit. H. L. hunc locum. H. L. ET. M. H. N. S. hic locus et monumentum heredem non sequitur. H. M. S. D. M. hoc monumentum sine dolo malo. H. S. E. hic situs est. H. S. F. hoc sibi fecit, etc.; v. Inscr. Orell. II. p. 461 sq.

for sestertium does not strictly belong here, because H is not the letter of that shape, but the numeral II. crossed; v. sestertius init.

T, t. indecl. n. or (to agree with littera) f., the nineteenth letter of the Lat. alphabet ( i and j being counted as one), = Gr. T (tau). It is very freq. as a final letter, esp. in verbal endings of the third person.

As an initial, it is, in pure Lat. words, followed by no consonant except r: traho, tremo, tribuo, etc.; the combinations tl and tm are found only in words borrowed from the Greek: Tlepolemus, tmesis, Tmolus. Hence an initial t occurring in the ancient language before l (like an initial d before v, v. letter D) is rejected in classical Lat.: lātus (Part. of fero) for tlatus, from root tol- of tollo, tuli; cf. with TLAÔ, tlêtos; even when softened by a sibilant, the combination of t and l in stlata (genus navigii), stlembus (gravis, tardus), stlis, stlocus, was avoided, and, except in the formal lang. of law, which retained stlitibus judicandis, the forms lis, locus remained the only ones in use, though the transitional form slis occurs twice in very old inscriptions. Before a vowel or r, the original Indo-European t always retained its place and character. Between two vowels t and tt were freq. confounded, and in some words the double letter became established, although the original form had but one t; thus, quattuor, cottidie, littera, stand in the best MSS. and inscriptions; v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 174 sqq.—

The sibilant pronunciation of a medial t before i and a following vowel, is a peculiarity of a late period. Isidorus (at the commencement of the seventh century after Christ) is the first who expresses himself definitely on this point: cum justitia sonum z litterae exprimat, tamen quia Latinum est, per t scribendum est, sicut militia, malitia, nequitia et cetera similia (Orig. 1, 26, 28); but the commutation of ci and ti, which occurs not unfrequently in older inscriptions, shows the origin of this change in pronunciation to have been earlier. In the golden age of the language, however, it was certainly [p. 1831] unknown.—

The aspiration of t did not come into general use till the golden age; hence, CARTACINIENSIS, on the Columna Rostrata; whereas in Cicero we have Carthago, like Cethegus, etc.; v. Cic. Or. 48, 160; and cf. letter C.—

T is interchanged with d, c, and s; v. these letters.—

T is assimilated to s in passus from patior, quassus from quatio, fassus from fateor, missus from mitto, equestris from eques (equit-), etc. It is wholly suppressed before s in usus, from utor; in many nominatives of the third declension ending in s: civitas (root civitat, gen. civitatis), quies (quiet, quietis), lis (lit, litis), dos (dot, dotis), salus (salut, salutis), amans (amant, amantis), mens (ment, mentis), etc.; and likewise in flexi, flexus, from flecto, and before other letters, in remus, cf. ratis; Gr. eretmos; in penna; root pat-, to fly; Gr. petomai, etc. In late Lat. the vulgar language often dropped t before r and before vowels; hence such forms as mari, quaraginta, donaus, are found for matri, quatriginta (quad-), donatus, in inscriptions; cf. the French mère, quarante, donné.—

As an abbreviation, T. stands for Titus; Ti. Tiberius; TR. Tribunus; T. F. Testamenti formula; T. F. C. Titulum faciendum curavit; T. P. Tribunicia potestas, etc.

T, t. indecl. n. or (to agree with littera) f., the nineteenth letter of the Lat. alphabet ( i and j being counted as one), = Gr. T (tau). It is very freq. as a final letter, esp. in verbal endings of the third person.

As an initial, it is, in pure Lat. words, followed by no consonant except r: traho, tremo, tribuo, etc.; the combinations tl and tm are found only in words borrowed from the Greek: Tlepolemus, tmesis, Tmolus. Hence an initial t occurring in the ancient language before l (like an initial d before v, v. letter D) is rejected in classical Lat.: lātus (Part. of fero) for tlatus, from root tol- of tollo, tuli; cf. with TLAÔ, tlêtos; even when softened by a sibilant, the combination of t and l in stlata (genus navigii), stlembus (gravis, tardus), stlis, stlocus, was avoided, and, except in the formal lang. of law, which retained stlitibus judicandis, the forms lis, locus remained the only ones in use, though the transitional form slis occurs twice in very old inscriptions. Before a vowel or r, the original Indo-European t always retained its place and character. Between two vowels t and tt were freq. confounded, and in some words the double letter became established, although the original form had but one t; thus, quattuor, cottidie, littera, stand in the best MSS. and inscriptions; v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 174 sqq.—

The sibilant pronunciation of a medial t before i and a following vowel, is a peculiarity of a late period. Isidorus (at the commencement of the seventh century after Christ) is the first who expresses himself definitely on this point: cum justitia sonum z litterae exprimat, tamen quia Latinum est, per t scribendum est, sicut militia, malitia, nequitia et cetera similia (Orig. 1, 26, 28); but the commutation of ci and ti, which occurs not unfrequently in older inscriptions, shows the origin of this change in pronunciation to have been earlier. In the golden age of the language, however, it was certainly [p. 1831] unknown.—

The aspiration of t did not come into general use till the golden age; hence, CARTACINIENSIS, on the Columna Rostrata; whereas in Cicero we have Carthago, like Cethegus, etc.; v. Cic. Or. 48, 160; and cf. letter C.—

T is interchanged with d, c, and s; v. these letters.—

T is assimilated to s in passus from patior, quassus from quatio, fassus from fateor, missus from mitto, equestris from eques (equit-), etc. It is wholly suppressed before s in usus, from utor; in many nominatives of the third declension ending in s: civitas (root civitat, gen. civitatis), quies (quiet, quietis), lis (lit, litis), dos (dot, dotis), salus (salut, salutis), amans (amant, amantis), mens (ment, mentis), etc.; and likewise in flexi, flexus, from flecto, and before other letters, in remus, cf. ratis; Gr. eretmos; in penna; root pat-, to fly; Gr. petomai, etc. In late Lat. the vulgar language often dropped t before r and before vowels; hence such forms as mari, quaraginta, donaus, are found for matri, quatriginta (quad-), donatus, in inscriptions; cf. the French mère, quarante, donné.—

As an abbreviation, T. stands for Titus; Ti. Tiberius; TR. Tribunus; T. F. Testamenti formula; T. F. C. Titulum faciendum curavit; T. P. Tribunicia potestas, etc.

V, v, a character derived from the Greek g, Mar. Victor. p. 2459 P. A consonant which, though originally written with the same sign as the vowel u (v. the letter U), was by the ancients themselves considered as essentially different from it, Charis. p. 57 P.; Diom. p. 416; 420 P.; Prisc. p. 539; 542; 544 sq. P.; Vel. Long. p. 2215; 2222 P.; just as the consonant i ( j) and the vowel i were regarded as two distinct letters; v. the letter J.

The sound of V seems to have been the same with that of English initial W. It corresponded to the Æolic digamma;

hence it is called,

Quint. 12, 10, 29, Aeolica littera, and the emperor Claudius used the Greek digamma inverted F to represent it (because in its proper position it already formed the Latin letter F), Quint. 1, 7, 26; Prisc. p. 545 sq. P.; Gell. 14, 5, 2;

v. also the inscrr. of the period during and immediately succeeding the reign of Claudius,

Inscr. Orell. 710 sq.; Marini Atti, p. 97. In very many words which were originally common to both languages, the initial or medial v in Latin represents a lost digamma in Greek; cf.: ver, êr; vis, is; video, ID; vestis, esthês; vitulus, italos; vomo, emeô; voco, epô; volvo, eilô; vinum, oinos; viola, ion; vespera, hespera; Vesta, Hestia; silva, hulê; ovis, oïs; divus, dios; aevum, aiôn; scaevus, skaios; vicus, oikos; levis, leios al. (For a full discussion of the sound of V, see Roby, Gram. I. praef. p. xxxiii. sqq.).—

V has the closest affinity to the vowel u, and hence, in the course of composition and inflection, it often passed into the latter: solvo, solutum, from solvĭtum, solŭĭtum; caveo, cautum, from cavitum; fautor, from faveo; lautum, from lavo; nauta, from navita; audeo, cf. avidus; neu, seu, from neve, sive; tui, cf. Sanscr. tvam; sui, Sanscr. sva-; suavis, Sanscr. svadus, and is resolved into it by the poets from prosodial necessity: silŭa (trisyl.) for silva; dissŏlŭo, evŏlŭam (quadrisyl.), for dissolvam, evolvam; dissŏlŭenda, evolŭisse (quinquasyl.), for dissolvenda, evolvisse, etc., just as, for the same cause, although less freq., u passed into v: gēnva, tēnvis (dissyl.), for gēnŭa, tĕnŭis; tēnvĭa, tēnvĭus (trisyl.), for tĕnŭĭa, tĕnŭĭus.—For the affinity of v to b, v. the letter B.—

V as a medial between two vowels was very freq. elided, esp. in inflection, and the word underwent in consequence a greater or less contraction: amavisti, amāsti; deleverunt, delērunt; novisti, nōsti; audivisti, audīsti, or audiisti; siveris, siris, or sieris; obliviscor, oblitus; dives, dis; aeviternus, aeternus; divitior, ditior; bovibus, bubus, etc.; providens, prudens; movimentum, momentum; provorsus, prorsus; si vis, sis; si vultis, sultis; Jovis pater, Juppiter; mage volo, mavolo, malo; non volo, nolo, etc. An example of the elision of v without a further contraction of the word is found in seorsus, from sevorsus (v. seorsus).—This etymological suppression of v is to be distinguished from its purely orthographical omission before or after u in ancient MSS. and inscriptions, as serus for servus, noum for novum, festius for festivus, Pacuius for Pacuvius; cf. the letters J and Q.—V is sometimes elided after a mute: dis for dvis from duo; likewise after s: sibi for svibi (from su-ibi); sis, sas, sos, for suis, suas, suos; sultis for si vultis; so Lat. si corresponds to Umbr. sve and Osc. svai; v. esp. Corss. Ausspr. 1, p. 310 sqq.—

As an abbreviation, V (as the sign of the consonant) stands for vir, vivus, vixit, voto, vale, verba, etc.; V. C., or also VC., vir clarissimus; VCP., voti compos posuit; V. V., virgo Vestalis; V. F. Q. D. E. R. F. P. D. E. R. I. C., verba fecerunt. Quid de eā re fieri placeret, de eā re ita censuerunt.—As a numeral, the letter V stands for half of the geometrical cross X or ten, Zumpt, Gr. § 115 Anm. 1.

V, v, a character derived from the Greek g, Mar. Victor. p. 2459 P. A consonant which, though originally written with the same sign as the vowel u (v. the letter U), was by the ancients themselves considered as essentially different from it, Charis. p. 57 P.; Diom. p. 416; 420 P.; Prisc. p. 539; 542; 544 sq. P.; Vel. Long. p. 2215; 2222 P.; just as the consonant i ( j) and the vowel i were regarded as two distinct letters; v. the letter J.

The sound of V seems to have been the same with that of English initial W. It corresponded to the Æolic digamma;

hence it is called,

Quint. 12, 10, 29, Aeolica littera, and the emperor Claudius used the Greek digamma inverted F to represent it (because in its proper position it already formed the Latin letter F), Quint. 1, 7, 26; Prisc. p. 545 sq. P.; Gell. 14, 5, 2;

v. also the inscrr. of the period during and immediately succeeding the reign of Claudius,

Inscr. Orell. 710 sq.; Marini Atti, p. 97. In very many words which were originally common to both languages, the initial or medial v in Latin represents a lost digamma in Greek; cf.: ver, êr; vis, is; video, ID; vestis, esthês; vitulus, italos; vomo, emeô; voco, epô; volvo, eilô; vinum, oinos; viola, ion; vespera, hespera; Vesta, Hestia; silva, hulê; ovis, oïs; divus, dios; aevum, aiôn; scaevus, skaios; vicus, oikos; levis, leios al. (For a full discussion of the sound of V, see Roby, Gram. I. praef. p. xxxiii. sqq.).—

V has the closest affinity to the vowel u, and hence, in the course of composition and inflection, it often passed into the latter: solvo, solutum, from solvĭtum, solŭĭtum; caveo, cautum, from cavitum; fautor, from faveo; lautum, from lavo; nauta, from navita; audeo, cf. avidus; neu, seu, from neve, sive; tui, cf. Sanscr. tvam; sui, Sanscr. sva-; suavis, Sanscr. svadus, and is resolved into it by the poets from prosodial necessity: silŭa (trisyl.) for silva; dissŏlŭo, evŏlŭam (quadrisyl.), for dissolvam, evolvam; dissŏlŭenda, evolŭisse (quinquasyl.), for dissolvenda, evolvisse, etc., just as, for the same cause, although less freq., u passed into v: gēnva, tēnvis (dissyl.), for gēnŭa, tĕnŭis; tēnvĭa, tēnvĭus (trisyl.), for tĕnŭĭa, tĕnŭĭus.—For the affinity of v to b, v. the letter B.—

V as a medial between two vowels was very freq. elided, esp. in inflection, and the word underwent in consequence a greater or less contraction: amavisti, amāsti; deleverunt, delērunt; novisti, nōsti; audivisti, audīsti, or audiisti; siveris, siris, or sieris; obliviscor, oblitus; dives, dis; aeviternus, aeternus; divitior, ditior; bovibus, bubus, etc.; providens, prudens; movimentum, momentum; provorsus, prorsus; si vis, sis; si vultis, sultis; Jovis pater, Juppiter; mage volo, mavolo, malo; non volo, nolo, etc. An example of the elision of v without a further contraction of the word is found in seorsus, from sevorsus (v. seorsus).—This etymological suppression of v is to be distinguished from its purely orthographical omission before or after u in ancient MSS. and inscriptions, as serus for servus, noum for novum, festius for festivus, Pacuius for Pacuvius; cf. the letters J and Q.—V is sometimes elided after a mute: dis for dvis from duo; likewise after s: sibi for svibi (from su-ibi); sis, sas, sos, for suis, suas, suos; sultis for si vultis; so Lat. si corresponds to Umbr. sve and Osc. svai; v. esp. Corss. Ausspr. 1, p. 310 sqq.—

As an abbreviation, V (as the sign of the consonant) stands for vir, vivus, vixit, voto, vale, verba, etc.; V. C., or also VC., vir clarissimus; VCP., voti compos posuit; V. V., virgo Vestalis; V. F. Q. D. E. R. F. P. D. E. R. I. C., verba fecerunt. Quid de eā re fieri placeret, de eā re ita censuerunt.—As a numeral, the letter V stands for half of the geometrical cross X or ten, Zumpt, Gr. § 115 Anm. 1.