5th Declension nouns

Latin Learning Latin
1

Salve omnes,

How many nouns are there of the 5th declension? Most textbooks I’ve seen usually use dies and res as examples of 5th declension nouns. Then my book goes on to say that most nouns of the 5th declension are feminine. How can this be if there are so few nouns of the 5th declension?

Thanks,
Deccius

2

Salve Decci,

I don’t know why there are relatively few nouns of the 5th declension, but the reason most textbooks mention res and dies is that these two nouns are the only ones which have forms in all the cases.

Other words following the 5th declension include fides, spes and some words with the -ies ending such as acies, glacies, canities and luxuries.

There is also meridies which is a masculinum. Remember that dies can be both a masculinum and a femininum depending on its exact meaning.

3

there are fewer than 10 common nouns of the 5th declension (not including those that have forms of multiple declensions), but there are several that serve as variant forms for corresponding 1st declension nouns (e.g. canitia/canities, luxuria/luxuries). since the 1st declension and 5th declension are of the same origin, their nouns share the tendency of being usually feminine; in fact, the only masculine nouns in the 5th declension are dies (sometimes feminine) and meridies (because it is a derivative of dies). dies and res, as amans stated, are the only nouns in this declension to be found in all numbers and cases. most 5th decl nouns lack the plural, but (A&G 98.a.) acies, effigies, eluvies, facies, glacies, series, species, and spes are found in the nom/acc plural.