Funny this. In Orberg’s LLPSI he uses aeger, -ra, -rum as an adjective and helpfully defines it in the vocabulary. But he also uses ager as a noun and doesn’t indicate this anywhere in the book that I can see. Also my Collins Latin dictionary doesn’t show it as a noun either. I deduced that it’s a 2nd declension masculine noun to mean, I suppose, an illness. It is shown as such in Whittaker’s Words..
Well, adjectives are very frequently used as nouns, just as in English: for example, “sick” is usually an adjective, but can act as a noun (“the sick” = “the sick person(s)”).
Also my Collins Latin dictionary doesn’t show it as a noun either. I deduced that it’s a 2nd declension masculine noun to mean, I suppose, an illness. It is shown as such in Whittaker’s Words..
“Sickness” would be “aegritudo”. My version of Words correctly lists the noun “aeger” with the meaning “sick person, invalid, patient”.
You mean “aeger” rather than “ager”, I presume. “Ager” is a completely different noun meaning “farm” or “field”, but I’m pretty sure that doesn’t occur in Lingua Latina I (or, at least, not that early in the book).
And yes, it’s very common to use adjectives as nouns. An adjective being used as a noun can be seen as “the one that is X” or “somebody/something that is X”. For example, “Dā mihi album!”, “Give me a/the white one!”
What’s the sentence in question, and from which line of which chapter?
(BTW: the proper way to write the thread title would be “Aeger, -gri”. The way it’s written now, it could be interpreted as “Aeger, aegeri”.)
Furrykef. Yes I do mean Aeger. Darn my typing skills. The sentence is in LLPSI. Ch. XI Line 27: ‘Medicus est vir qui homines aegros sanat, sed multi aegri a medico sanari non possunt.’
So I think the ‘aegri’ in ‘multi aegri’ is masculine noun of the 2nd declension nominative case…
And yes, it’s very common to use adjectives as nouns. An adjective being used as a noun can be seen as “the one that is X” or “somebody/something that is X”. For example, “Dā mihi album!”, “Give me a/the white one!”
What’s the sentence in question, and from which line of which chapter?
(BTW: the proper way to write the thread title would be “Aeger, -gri”. The way it’s written now, it could be interpreted as “Aeger, aegeri”.)[/quote]
Yep, here it clearly means “sick people”, and it is indeed 2nd declension nominative case.
But hold on… couldn’t it mean ‘illnesses’ or ‘diseases’?
illness/disease = aegritudo -inis (generis feminini) et cetera vocabula
No, because “someone/something that is sick” doesn’t mean “illness”.
Many thanks for your help with this.