ramale
Latin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Substantivized neuter of rāmālis, from rāmus (“branch”) + -ālis (“-al”).
Noun
[edit]rāmāle n (genitive rāmālis); third declension
- (in the plural) twigs, shoots, sticks
- 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.644–645:
- Multifidāsque facēs rāmāliaque ārida tēctō
dētulit et minuit parvōque admōvit aēnō.- Cleft torches and dry sticks from the abode
she took and chopped and brought to a small bronze vessel.
- Cleft torches and dry sticks from the abode
- Multifidāsque facēs rāmāliaque ārida tēctō
- brushwood, undergrowth
Usage notes
[edit]This noun is almost exclusively pluralia tantum. The singular is however encountered, very rarely:
c. 62 CE, Persius, Saturae 1.97–98:
- '"Arma virum!" Nōnne hoc spūmōsum et cortice pinguī,
ut rāmāle vetus vēgrandī sūbere coctum?- '"Arms and the man!" Is this not bombastic, with a thick shell,
like an old twig cooked with a great cork-tree?
- '"Arms and the man!" Is this not bombastic, with a thick shell,
Declension
[edit]Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem).
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | rāmāle | rāmālia |
Genitive | rāmālis | rāmālium |
Dative | rāmālī | rāmālibus |
Accusative | rāmāle | rāmālia |
Ablative | rāmālī | rāmālibus |
Vocative | rāmāle | rāmālia |
References
[edit]- “ramale”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ramale in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.