undeoctogesimus

Theme for this week: Words from NJCL Convention

clavis, clavis f.

Definition: key

Sententia: Canis sub clave erat quandocumque hospites aderant, novo enim homine conspecto latrabat et vicinos turbavit

The dog was shut up (lit. was under the key) whenever guests were present, for with a new person having been caught sight of he kept barking and disturbed the neighbors.

This word was in the Intermediate Certamen finals as a derivative question--"What is the Latin word from which conclave is derived?" (That is not as elegantly phrased as it was in the finals, but you get the idea of the question). None of the teams got it right, and I didn't know the answer at the time, and thus it is the word for today. I know that is is a rather simple sort of word which I should have known--my defense is that the Cornelii from Ecce Romani didn't go waving keys around! And it is from that series that I learned basic words (which aren't actually used much in poetry, but useful if you want to carry on conversations in Latin).