Sign Wrote:Ooh, exciting, another Latin personSpecial cookie! [On topic] While I agree that Nexon is silly with regard to its understanding of precise Latin semantics...
[Slightly off topic] ... I thought i'd add my bit on the exact meaning of summa and magna.
summus, -a, -um: more like "utmost" rather than "main" or "fullness" - would you agree? It is also "highest" in the sense of "the highest mountain" (mons summa) but it seems to me to stem mainly from "utmost" rather than a separate definition of its own. My definition is based on how I often translate classical texts, rather than a dictionary, so it may be less reliable.
NB: I've just noticed you said "summa, -ae" - maybe you looked up the noun by mistake instead of the adjective?
magnus, -a, -um: more like "great," pretty much covered by the OP. I haven't really seen it used as "important" except metaphorically... Definitely it can be applied to metaphorically great - "She was a great lady" (femina magna erat) - but can also be used as literally great, as in larger - "Pompilius built a ship greater than that of Lucius" (Pompilius navem magnam quo Lucii aedificavit)....Would you agree, Rob? It's difficult to really make any solid statements about a dead language of course
Sure I agree, but since I've been translating Horatium and Plauto lately, the meanings that came to my mind while looking up for them in the dictionary were those. But, despite the examples which were really good for simple sentences, I would like to add the dictionary itself quotes: magno aestimare 'to estimate the most' or chopping the root of the word (magn-) and comparing it to nouns and verbs like magnitudo, -inis; magnificentia, -ae; magnifico [1, tr.]
And I put summa, -ae, the noun, instead of the adjective since the noun had more possible translations. (It never came to my mind that anyone here studied Latin too). I was looking for this: vitae summa brevis(Horatium, Liber 3, XVI (if i remember well)): the life's shortness. See? Despite summa means big or great (moreless), here emphasizes shortness.
Oh, btw, in the second sentence (Pompilius navem..) it's better, or at least I prefer, to use the comparative form of the adjective instead of the subordination cuz the sentence ends up being shorter and easier to read