I have several newbie questions relating to the latin word HAC.
I looked it up and I found two definitions,
hac : this side, this way, here.
hac : (fem. sing. abl.) He who lives BY THIS (the sword), …
I am more interested in the use of second definition since it seems not used much.
Can someone please explain its context or how it is used or when it is used.
And explain what the fem. sing. and abl. stands for, or a link I can find out.
Thanks.
easy, hic, haec, hoc is a generic pronoun. Hac is ablative of, well, it wouldn’t be gladius because gladius is masculine, but probably verba - word.
Verba is femine, singular, and when used with [by] it becomes ablative, hac is the appropriate word to use.
Verba is femine, singular, and when used with [by] it becomes ablative, hac is the appropriate word to use.
Surely plural of verbum (nt.). Can’t find any mention of verba in Perseus’ online dictionary.
Oh, I get it. Was the second definition not literal, more of an example of how you would use hac?
What I am saying is one of the definitions of Hac does not mean literally “He who lives BY THIS (the sword).”
It only means “by this”, they are just putting it into context (presumably…). In the first example which you gave, the word via is probably implied (or was originally). verba is of course not the sort of noun to consider itself feminine.
On the word verbum - you’re right, verba is not a word, I was thinking of res, feminine, which is commonly used for [this]… but Horace does give “verbi causa” (can’t remember offhand where exactly…) or at least he does according to my dictionary (Chambers Murray).
Thanks everyone. I appreciate it.