Sunday, May 20, 2012

Curia

This little poem comes from the distichs of Publius Faustus Andrelinus (c. 1460-1518). You can find his hecatodistichon, his "hundred distichs," at Google Books. In later Latin, the word curia came to mean "court," as in the royal court. The word curia does not come from the word cura, as the folk etymology in the poem supposes, but scholars are not entirely agreed about the actual linguistic etymology of curia; some suppose that it comes from co-viria (men coming together).

Curia
Quam bene conveniens sortita est curia nomen:
A gravibus curis curia dicta venit.


The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are only two words in this poem that are not on the DCC list:

cūria -ae f.: senate-house
sortior, -īrī, sortītus - draw lots, cast lots, award by lot, allot

ā ab abs: from, by (+abl.)
bene: well
conveniō -venīre -vēnī -ventum: assemble, meet; agree
cūra -ae f.: care, concern
dīcō dīcere dīxī dictum: say; causam dicere, plead a case; diem dicere, appoint a day
gravis -e: heavy
nōmen -inis n.: name
quam: how?; (after comparative) than
veniō venīre vēnī ventum: come