cuncta

[pmda]

In LLPSI Cap XXXVIII hoc scribitur:

Cuncta classis remis ventisque laevam petivit.

Cur 'cuncta' et non 'cuncti' scribitur? Classis singularis....

This is usually translated as 'all' but it only makes sense if it means 'each'...?

[Alatius]

'Classis' est feminini generis...

[Craig_Thomas]

"The whole fleet" is the subject.

[pmda]

ah..of course. partitive genitive. I was thinking of cuncta as an adjective rather than a noun: cuncta, -ae (f)

Thanks.

[Craig_Thomas]

Classis et cuncta sunt in casu nominativo.

[Carolus Raeticus]

Salve pmda!

In LLPSI Cap XXXVIII hoc scribitur:

Cuncta classis remis ventisque laevam petivit.

Cunctus is an ordinary adjective in the nominative case (feminine, singular) belonging to the noun classis which is also in the nominative (feminine, singular).

The adjective cunctus does mean "all", but with a slightly different emphasis. Look at Lewis & Short's entry for cunctus:

cunctus, a, um, and more freq. in plur. cuncti, ae, a, adj. contr. from conjunctus,
I. all in a body, all together, the whole, all, entire (cf. Paul. ex Fest. p. 50, 15 Müll.: cuncti significat quidem omnes, sed conjuncti et congregati; very freq. and class.).

Or the respective entry from Cassell's Latin Dictionary:

cunctus -a - um (contr. from coniunctus or coiunctus), all, all collectively, the whole; sing.: Gallia, Caes.; senatus; Cic.; orbis terrarum, Verg.; plur. cuncti cives, Cic.; in poet. sometimes with genit.: hominum conctos; esp. in n. pl.: cuncta terrarum, Hor.

So cuncta classis means "the whole fleet," "the fleet as a whole".

Another way to look at it is from the point of view of synonyms, in this case taken from Robert WM. Douthat's "Latin Synonyms" (1907):

• cunctus, "all" as being conjoined, all together.
• integer, "whole" as being unbroken or untouched.
• omnis, "all" as every one taken one by one.
• solidus, "all" as compact in one body, Dies solidus.
• totus, "all" as a whole from beginning to end.
• universus, "all" as all turned into one.

Vale,

Carolus Raeticus

[pmda]

Carolus Raeticus, Many thanks. I think I was making it too complicated.