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- "Nolite deos rogare!"
28 Comments
Yes. It might help to think of them as meaning "Refuse", and then the fact that the verb's INFINITIVE is added, to make the 2-part negative command, makes more sense: "Refuse TO THROW the spear!"
Actually, nolle means "to be unwilling". "Velle" is "to want". "Nolle" is "to not want" [non velle but contracted]. "Malle" is "to rather want". So the imperative of nolle commands the 2nd person to be unwilling to execute the infinitive that follows it.
That's right; "refuse" = "be unwilling." The negative command structure is rather like telling someone, "Don't even WANT to throw that spear!"
I'll just add one more voice to the choir praising this speaker. Half the fun of this course comes from listening to his delivery. More please!
I don't think so.
It looks (from the Oxford Latin Dictionary) as though rogāre means to ask someone a question; to ask someone for his opinion; to request things; but those seem to be distinct from the (very interesting) "questioning OF the gods," i.e., calling them (their existence, I think you mean?) into question.
(Unless I'm simply missing something in that entry.)
Yes, calling them/their existence into question is one possible meaning of the sentence ("Don't question the gods") I am asking about! Rather than their existence, though, I was thinking more along the lines of not questioning/doubting their decisions/commands/actions, much in the way one might be told not to question ones parents or an elder/superior/authority figure.
921
noli -> "don't" when directed at one person. It's the second person present imperative singular. "Marcus, don't ask the gods!" -> Marce, noli deos rogare!
nolite -> "don't" when directed at multiple people. It's the second person present imperative plural. "Marcus and Livia, don't ask the gods" -> Marce et Livia, nolite deos rogare!
I think this the same guy who used to slur his words so much that I couldn't understand when one word ended and the next one began.
