cxl

Theme for this month: A hodgepodge portrait of TJ

solvo, solvere, solvi, solutus

Definition: to loosen, release, dissolve, explain, etc. (the actual dictionary definition is 12 lines long in my smaller dictionary, and 2 whole pages long in the Oxford Latin dictionary; if you're interested in the whole definition you can look it up yourself)

Sententiae: Catullus 31, line 7

"O quid solutis est beatius curis..."

O what is more blessed than cares having been loosened...

The subset of the "hodgepodge portrait of TJ" featured today is the end of the AP exams, and the approach of SOLs (Standards of Learning, a Virginia state standardized test). This quote from Catullus is particularly apt, since after the massive frenzy of AP testing last week things have quieted down. "SOLvo" occurs countless times on the AP syllabi--in Catullus poems 2, 31, 36, 64; in the Metamorphoses Book 8, Baucis and Philemon; in the Amores 1.1 (in fact, "soluta" was on the Ovid chunk on the AP!); and in Vergil's Aeneid books 1, 2 and 4. Etymologically, "solvo" derives from "se-," a prefix for verbs often meaning "apart" or "aside" + "luo," meaning "to pay [a penalty], to atone for."