The principles of Latin grammar; comprising the ... - Essan.org

:§ 16 FOURTH DECLENSION. 35Exc. 3. The Genitive, Dative, and Ablative plural :—Thegenitive plural is sometimes contracted ;as, currum, for curruum.The following nouns have ubus instead of ibus in thedative and ablative plural ; viz :Aeus, a needle. Lacus, a lake. Specus, a den.Arcus, a bow. Partus, a birth. Tribus, a tribe.Artus, a joint. Portus,* a harbour. Vera,* a spit.Genu,* the knee.* These words also have -ibus in the dative plural.9a—OBSERVATIONS.1. Nouns of this declension seem to have belonged ancientlyto the third, and were declined like grus, gruis; thus, fructus,fructu-is, fructu-i, &c. So that all the cases, except the Dativesingular and the genitive plural, may be regarded as contractedforms of that declension.2. Several nouns of this declension are, in whole or in part,of the second also; such as, Flcus, laurus, phius, plnus, domus,senatus, tumultus, and several others. Capricomus, m., andthe compounds of mdnus, as unimdnus, centimanus, &c, arealways of the second.3. Jesus, the name of the Saviour, has um in the accusative,and u in all the other oblique cases.This word does not properlybelong to this declension, but is after the Greek :ov, ov. ovv, ov.'Irjaovs,4. Nouns in u were formerly considered indeclinable in thesingular ; but the recent investigations of Freund and others,have shown this opinion to be incorrect, at least with regardto the genitive ;and that u, the only termination of the dativenow found, is probably a contraction for ui—just as usu iscontracted for usui. (Exc. 2.)5. Domus, a house, Fern., is thus declinedSingular.Plural.N. dom-us, N. dom-us,G. dom-us, or -i, G. dom-orum, or -uum,D. dom-ui, or -o, D. dom-ibus,Ac. dom-um,Ac. dom-us, or -os,V. dom-us, V. dom-us,Ab. dom-o.Ab. dom-ibus.Bote.—Domus in the genitive, signifies of a house. Domi is used omy tosignify at Jiome, or of home.