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Spoken Latin: What does “Umbra” mean?

This article has been reviewed in accordance with our editorial policy.

In this third video in our series about Latin expres­sions and texts explained in Latin, I talk about a word whose mean­ing, at first glance, seems so appar­ent that there would be no need to make a video about it. But today, we will talk about quite anoth­er mean­ing of this word umbra.

Video in Latin

Latin audio

If you want to prac­tice your lis­ten­ing com­pre­hen­sion, you can do that here, or on your pod­cast app.

Video text

Sal­vete! Mihi nomen est Daniel, et si me nos­tis, con­di­di una cum ami­ca mea sedem latinitium.com, ubi cum alia tum sub­sidia ad lin­guam Lati­nam dis­cen­dam praebe­mus ali­quan­do Anglice, ali­quan­do Latine.

Hodie tractabimus locu­tionem lati­nam, vel non tam locu­tionem quam ver­bum. Est vocab­u­lum quod for­t­asse pri­ma fronte vide­tur usi­tatis­si­mum et cuius sig­ni­fi­ca­tio vide­tur manifesta—non est (for­t­asse non omnibus).

Umbra certe est id quod nasc­i­tur propter lucem, sed est eti­am aliq­uid ali­ud: Si ego invi­ta­tus sum ad con­vivi­um et deinde adduco amicum non invi­ta­tum; adduco—nescio—Marcum, qui non est invi­ta­tus ad hoc con­vivi­um, ille est umbra mea.

Ergo homo qui ven­it, qui sequitur, qui comi­tatur amicum jam invi­ta­tum ad con­vivi­um vocatur umbra. 

Quamquam non est usi­tatis­si­mum vocab­u­lum, tamen apud scrip­tores antiqu­os non semel inven­i­tur, et for­t­asse ille apud Hor­atium est locus notis­simus ubi describ­it con­vi­vas quos iux­ta se videt, ni fal­lor: describ­it, dic­it nom­i­na eorum quos Mae­ce­nas umbras adduxerat—aliquid huius­mo­di. Ille Mae­ce­nas addux­er­at hos homies, qui non invi­tati erant ad con­vivi­um in quo erat, sed tamen addux­er­at eos ad con­vivi­um. Hi ideo vocan­tur umbrae.

Umbra est homo non invi­ta­tus qui adduci­tur ad con­vivi­um ab alio homine qui ad id con­vivi­um invi­ta­tus est. Ergo prox­ime, si quan­do con­vivi­um adieri­tis, et for­t­asse libebit adduc­ere amicum qui non invi­ta­tus est, ille vobis erit umbra. Tantum’st!

Daniel Pettersson

Daniel Pettersson

Teacher and author Daniel Pettersson, M.A., is co-founder of Latinitium and is currently teaching Latin at Stockholm University, where he is also working on his Ph.D. dissertation on Humanist Colloquia. Daniel believes in the importance of Latin literature in the modern world and that you can teach yourself Latin with the right motivation, method, and material.
Written by Daniel Pettersson

Written by Daniel Pettersson

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