Sample - Aide Memoire

1. INTRODUCTION
This Booklet is not exhaustive and is a condensation of the workshops. Most examples are my
own, but where necessary I have dragged in a few from Stearn's "Botanical Latin". I use his
book a lot too when writing the grammatical explanations, although I referred to others
frequently; all titles are listed in the booklist at the end, along with others of relevance. Stearn
gives very good accounts of all aspects of botanical latin and I refer you to his work for a full and
erudite account. The examples below are just that, examples to jog your memory if you resist
making the arduous trip to the bookcase, and they include nouns, adjectives, adverbs, numbers,
prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, and a few verbs, as well as hints on translation. Stearn's
book is essential if you want to start writing your own botanical latin, or if you want a basic but
thorough understanding of the language.
This course aims to teach you the very basics of Botanical Latin, so that when the time comes for
you to compose your own first description or diagnosis, starting off will not be the drama you
feared, as at least you will understand the workings of the language and the methods used in
translation.
In many examples in this booklet, I give the literal translation into English as well as the colloquial
so that the differences between the two languages can be demonstrated. This means that the
English may sometimes appear slightly unusual or stilted, as the word order may be smewhat
eccentric.
Description
Botanical Latin, whereas Classical Latin is a dead language, is very much alive and kicking, and
has evolved to include a smattering of Greek nouns – which are then “forced” into behaving as
Latin nouns instead of being declined in a Greek way, which can cause wincing, groans and
horror in the Classical establishment.
The Latin alphabet comprises 24 letters, that is, our Latin alphabet minus the J and K. In older
Botanical latin the “j” sometimes appears, and represents the consonantal or archaic “i” and is
pronounced like the “y” in “yes”.
Latin is a highly inflected language which means that not only do words change according to
whether they are singular or plural, e.g. flower and flowers in English, but the relationship of the
word to the rest of the sentence, whether it is the subject or object, whether it is governed by a
preposition, and so on, can be deduced from the ending of the word. In other words, the
subject and object of a verb are not denoted by their positions relative to the verb within the
sentence (in English, sentence construction is based upon subject, verb and object in that order),
but are incorporated into the actual noun itself:
The boy picked the fruit
Puer fructum carpit or fructum carpit puer or fructum puer carpit
In each of the three Latin examples above, exactly the same words with therefore exactly the
same meanings are used, although they are written in three different orders. Grammatically
the sentences are still the same, although the emphasis has been changed. If this is tried in
English, however, the s,entence is rapidly reduced to nonsense (unless the author is writing

2. Romantic poetry: Alexander Pope (Epistle to a Lady (1743)) 'Pleasures the sex, like children birds,
pursue, Forever out of reach, but never out of view ...').
The ending of each noun with its associated adjectives, incorporates the number of items
(singular or plural) involved, its gender (masculine, feminine or neuter), and its case (nominative,
accusative, genitive, dative or ablative).
NOUNS
Some nouns are masculine, some are feminine, some are both, and some are neuter. When a
mixture of masculine or feminine nouns occurs then their collective pronoun will be masculine
plural (Romans were chauvinists, for which we can be thankful as it does simplify things!).
1. Nominative: this is the case used for the subject of a clause or sentence:
pinus viridis est the pine is green; also puer in the example on p.000.
2. Accusative: used for the object of a clause or sentence:
folii pedunculum amplexi the leaves the stem clasp, the leaves clasp the stem;
also fructum on p.000.
3. Genitive: the possessive:
tuba corollae the tube of the corolla.
4. Dative: it incorporates a sense of to, or relatedness, but without the physical movement
towards as there is in the accusative:
species alii similis this species to another is similar, this species is similar to another.
5. Ablative: when the meanings of by, with, at or from are required, and with various
prepositions:
Basi pedicellis roseus at the base the pedicel is red
Apologia pro Libro meo Apologies for book my, apologies for my Book (Stearn).
The Declensions
Every Latin nouns falls into one of five group, or declensions, of nouns. Members of each
declension “behave” (as regards word endings) in the same way when they are declined. The
various word endings are attached to the stem of the word, which does not change in spite of all
the different endings being added or removed. The stem of a noun can be derived differently
according to its declension.
1
st
Declension Nouns
Nouns in this declension are feminine (Latin) and a few masculine and feminine Greek nouns
(e.g. Aloe, Anemone)
Anthera anther, bractea bract, gemma bud, Gmelina, Malva and Yucca are all 1
st
declension too,
and all end in –a: a sure way to recognize 1
st
Declension nouns EXCEPT for some words derived
from the Greek (Aaaargh! You say). Fret not; these nouns are derived from Greek neuter
nouns, and end in –ma so they are easily recognized, and being neuter, they are not even in the
1
st
Declension but in the 3
rd
(more about this on p.000).

3. So, below are a couple of 1
st
Declension nouns, bractea and Malva, fully declined.
bractea, bracteae, feminine, bract
Singular Plural
Nom. bractea bracteae
Acc. bracteam bracteas
Gen. bracteae bractearum
Dat. bracteae bracteis
Abl. bractea bracteis
Bracte is the stem, found by removing the terminal –a from the nominative. A common error I
have found while correcting Latin for botanists is that the stem of a noun is incorrectly derived,
especially in those feminine nouns ending in –ea, where the –e as well as the –a has been
removed.
Malva, Malvae, feminine, mallow
Singular Plural
Nom. Malva Malvae
Acc. Malvam Malvas
Gen. Malvae Malvarum
Dat. Malvae Malvis
Abl. Malva Malvis

Malva declined above has the stem Malv– (i.e. Malva minus the –ae of the genitive).

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BOOK LIST
Brown, R.W. (1956). Composition of Scientific Words. Revised Edition (Smithsonian Institution
Press: Washington.)
Geldhill, D. (1989). The Names of Plants. 2nd Edn. (CUP: Cambridge.)
Kennedy's Latin Primer (1963, 1978). This has long been out of print, but it is a valuable book
for those requiring all aspects of the grammar to be laid out in tables. It is available on the
Web.
Lewis, C.T. (1992). An Elementary Latin Dictionary. (OUP: Oxford.)
Littlejohn, J. (ed.) (1997). Collins Latin Dictionary plus Grammar. (Harper Collins Publishers.) ISBN
000472092X.
Radcliffe-Smith, A. (1998). Three-Language List of Botanical Name Components. (Royal Botanical
Gardens: Kew.) ISBN 1900347504.
Simpson, D.P. (1963). Cassells Concise Latin-English/English-Latin Dictionary. (Macmillan
Publishing: New York.)
Simpson, D.P. (1963). Cassells Latin Dictionary. Standard Edition with thumb index. ISBN
0025225804.
Stearn, W.T. (1983). Botanical Latin. (David and Charles: Newton Abbott.); any previous or
subsequent editions will do.