Ablativus

Latin-English

ablātīv|us, -ī. (ab.laˈti.vus) masc.

1. The ablative case.

ablātīv|us, -a, -um. (ab.laˈti.vus) adj.

1. Ablative; of or pertaining to the ablative case.

[aufero.]

Cic.	100%	Class.	100%	Rom.	31%	Med.	0%	Neo.	0%

Loci

• αʹ Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.4:

Nam cum dico ‘hasta percussi’, non utor ablativi natura, nec si idem Graece dicam, dativi.

Because when I say ‘hasta percussi’ (I struck with a spear), I am not making use of a sense of the ablative, nor—if I say the same thing in Greek—the dative.

• βʹ Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.5:

Ac si reperias grammaticum veterum amatorem, neget quicquam ex Latina ratione mutandum, quia, cum sit apud nos casus ablativus, quem illi non habent, parum conveniat uno casu nostro, quinque Graecis uti.

And if you meet a grammarian who loves the ancients, he'll say nothing should be changed from the Latin declension, because, while in our language there is an ablative case, which they don't have, it seems somewhat inappropriate to use one of our cases and five Greek ones.

• γʹ Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 1.7:

Ut "malus" arborem significet an hominem non bonum apice distinguitur, "palus" aliud priore syllaba longa, aliud sequenti significat, et cum eadem littera nominativo casu brevis, ablativo longa est, utrum sequamur plerumque hac nota monendi sumus.

As malus may mean "a tree" or "a bad man", it is marked with an apex; palus means one thing when the former syllable is long, and another when the subsequent syllable is; and when the same letter is short in the nominative case and long in the ablative, we usually need to be advised by this symbol which reading to follow.

• δʹ Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 7.9:

Accusativi geminatione facta amphibolia solvitur ablativo, ut illud "Lachetem audivi percussisse Demean" fiat "a Lachete percussum Demean".

Ambiguity created by doubling an accusative is resolved with an ablative, so that Lachetem audivi percussisse Demean ['Demea Laches struck, I heard'] may become a Lachete percussum Demean ['...Demea was struck by Laches'].

• εʹ Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 7.9:

Sed ablativo ipsi, ut in primo diximus, inest naturalis amphibolia: "caelo decurrit aperto": utrum per apertum caelum an cum apertum esset.

But in the ablative itself there is an innate ambiguity, as whether caelo decurrit aperto ['clear the sky he descended'] means he descended through a clear sky or while it was clear.

• στʹ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 1.16:

"Milli passum" dixit pro "mille passibus" et "uno milli nummum" pro "unis mille nummis" aperteque ostendit "mille" et vocabulum esse et singulari numero dici eiusque plurativum esse "milia" et casum etiam capere ablativum.

He said milli passum instead of mille passibus and uno milli nummum instead of unis mille nummis and clearly demonstrated that mille is a noun, that it is used in the singular, that its plural is milia, and also that it has an ablative case.