Sexagesimus Primus: July 13, 2008: Mango
Theme for this week: N/A
mango, mangonis m.
Definition: slave dealer
Sententia: Vir rogavit num mango servum qui bene fructus deligere sciret haberet (sed non mangae, quia non erant notae Romanis).
The man asked whether the dealer might have a slave of the sort who might know how to chose fruits well (but not mangoes, because they were not familiar to the Romans).
Yesterday's word was a fruit, and today's word seems like it should be a fruit, but indeed it is not! Otherwise, this word is hardly used at all (10 times, according to Perseus)--it's only cool because of what it seems to be, not what it actually is. And the Romans didn't even know of mangoes!
NB: Bold and underline == macron