cxxxix

Theme for this month: A hodgepodge portrait of TJ

aratrum, aratri

Definition: plow

Sententiae: From Amores 1.3, line 9: "nec meus innumeris renovatur campus aratris"

"Nor my field is renewed by countless plows"

[Ovid is talking about the virtues which he may not have, like an antient family line and acres and acres of fields]

From Catullus 11, lines:

"nec meum respectet, ut ante, amorem,

qui illius culpa cecidit velut prati

ultimi flos, praetereunte postquam

tactus aratro est."

"nor as before let her [Lesbia] look back at my love, which by the fault of that one fell just as a flower of the farthest field, after it was touched by a passingby plow."

[Catullus is discussing Lesbia's unfaithfulness, in a poem in the unusual meter Sapphic Strophe]

The subset of the "hodgepodge portrait of TJ" featured today is Latin, in particular Ovid/Catullus since the AP Latin Literature exam is on Friday (the last ever time it will be offered! eheu!). Thus, today's word occurs both in Ovid in Amores 1.3 and Catullus 11. Etymologically, it comes from "aro," a verb meaning "to plow," + "-trum," a suffix used to turn verbs into noun which is an instrument to enact that verb.