Word of the Day: Week 8/12

[Milito]

As proposed by Benissimus, here's a second word of the day for this week....<br /><br />incido, incidere, incidi, incasum<br /><br />The New College Latin and English Dictionary defines this one as:<br /><br />

intransitive to happen, occur; (with ad or in + accusative) to fall into, fall upon; (with in + accusative) 1. to come upon unexpectedly, fall in with; 2. to attack; (with dative or in + accusative) 1. to occur to (mentally); 2. to fall on (a certain day); 3. to befall, happen to; 4. to agree with

<br /><br />An example of use - from one of Cicero's letters to his buddy Atticus (from the Perseus Digital Library's word reference tool):<br /><br />si enim recte ambulavit is qui hanc epistulam tulit, in ipsum tuum diem incidit. <br /><br />("Indeed, if he who carried this letter walked in a straight line, it fell on your birthday.")<br /><br />----------------------------<br /><br />There are a couple reasons why I believe that this word is worthy of note. <br /><br />First, I've noted that it has a tendency of showing up with Great Frequency, in at least Cicero and Vergil's Aeneid, and is thus a useful one to be aware of. <br /><br />Second, it has a multitude of meanings, some of which don't seem to be closely related to others, although you can make the connection if you think about it. The lesson here is that it never hurts to double-check a definition in a dictionary, even if you think you know the word, because it may have an unexpected use which will make a translation a lot simpler.<br /><br />Third, it is a verb that has a pseudo-twin. Right after it in the dictionary is "incido, incidere, incidi, incisus", which has a LONG "i" after it's "c", instead of a short one. It means "carve, cut, sever", and can lead to some very peculiar translations if you choose the wrong "incido". The lesson here is to check the definitions around a word when you've found it in the dictionary, to make sure you've got the right one....<br /><br />Kilmeny<br /><br />