nonagesimus

Theme for this week: Easily confused words

quare (also qua re)

Definition: how, why; whereby; and therefore

queror, queri, questus sum

Definition: to complain, lament; (birds) to sing

Sententiae: Aestas fere perfecta est, quare ludamus nunc ut ad laborandum in ludo paremur.

Summer almost has been completed, and therefore let us play/have fun now so that we may be prepared for the sake of working in school.

"Cur non NUNC ire faciendum turrem harenae possumne?" puella questa est. "Non nunc!" monuit mater. "Prius necesse est tibi gerere praesidium soli.

"Why can't I go for the purpose of making a tower of sand NOW?" the little girl complained. "Not now!" admonished the mother. "First it is necessary for you to wear protection for the sun."

Perhaps these two words superficially don't look that similar, but often I mistakenly think that quare is a verb like queror because of the "are" ending. A main difference is that the final 'e' in "quare" is long, meaning that it couldn't be an infinitive . "Quare" is used very often by Catullus, in 10 poems on the syllabus: 1, 12, 35, 44, 64, 68, 69, 72, 76, and 85. "Queror," on the other hand, is used not at all in Catullus on the syllabus, but in Books 1 and 4 of Vergil's Aeneid and Books 4 (Pyramus and Thisbe) and 10 (Pygmalion) of Ovid's Metamorphoses.