Sexagesimus Tertius: July 15, 2008: Formica
Theme for this week: Animals
formica, formicae f.
Definition: ant
Sententia: Formicae circum frusta relicta prandii in mensa glomeraverunt et eos ad colonium portaverunt.
The ants gathered around the scraps of lunch having been left behind on the table and carried them to the colony.
This word occurs in Vergil's Aeneid, book 4. I can't find that there was anything particularly significant about ants in Roman culture, but in my dictionary at least there is a rather cool word with a connection to this one: "formicinus. " "Formicinus" means "crawling," which is logical, and it seems like it could be used to create an interesting sort of connotation in a poem.
NB: Bold and underline == macron