Expert: Maria - 11/4/2009

Question
Sorry about not being explicit in my previous question; I was so wordy I didn't realize I glossed over what I wanted translated slightly!

I do realize that horned and arsenical are very strange things to apply to a horse, but only one person has ever accused me of being normal! Ha! But seriously, for horned, I'm wondering how to say a horned horse. Can one say this without being specific as to how many horns said horse has? I'm hoping it's possible to suggest that the horse has one or more horns, or if that isn't possible, two or more horns. If that isn't possible, than how about a five-horned horse?

For arsenical, which simply means of arsenic, in English it's arsenical horse. I suppose that implies that the horse itself is made of arsenic, or perhaps is the color of arsenic. I realize these are fairly different implications. Wikipedia states that arsenic in English came from Greek, arsenikon (which itself came from Persian). It says that arsenikon is related to "'arsenikos' meaning 'masculine' or 'potent'". I don't know for sure of course, but I presume arsenikon changes to arsenikos (depending on the situation), though I don't want to just imply that the horse is masculine.

I hope that I have not been *too* wordy, and that this is interesting to you due to its uniqueness. Again, thanks very much! I have great anticipation for your answer.

Answer
Hello,

Thanks for your explanation.

So, as for “horned“ related to a horse, in ancient Greek we have two  adjectives only:

-“μονόκερως“ transliterated as “monókerôs” (adj. sing. masc/fem nominative)meaning “one-horned”/ “with but one horn”.  

-“δίκερως “ transliterated as “díkerôs” (adj. sing. masc/fem nominative) meaning “two-horned”.

Therefore we can say:

-“μονόκερως ἵππος”  transliterated as “monókerôs híppos”  meaning “a one horned horse”.

-“δίκερως ἵππος” transliterated as “díkerôs híppos”  meaning “a two-horned horse “.

No other translation is possible.


With regard to “arsenical”, which derives from ancient Greek neuter noun  “ἀρσενικόν" literally meaning “yellow orpiment”, it translates as follows:

-“ἀρσενικός" or "ἀρρενικός” (arsenikós/arrenikós) in the nominative masculine singular, meaning 'masculine' /’virile’/ 'potent'.

-“ἀρσενική" or "ἀρρενικê” (arsenikê/arrenikê) in the nominative feminine singular.

Therefore “the arsenical horse” as a subject of a sentence translates as follows:

-“ὁ ἀρσενικὸς ἵππος“  or “ὁ ἀρρενικὸς ἵππος“ (ho arsenikòs/ ho arrenikòs híppos) in in the nominative masculine singular.

-“ἡ ἀρσενικὴ ἵππος “  or “ἡ ἀρρενικὴ  ἵππος “ (hê arsenikê/ hê arrenikê híppos) in the nominative feminine singular.

Note that  in ancient Greek  the only way to indicate a “mare”/ “female horse” is to use a different definite article (the feminine "ἡ /hê" instead of the masculine “ὁ”/”ho”) or a feminine adjective instead of the masculine.

So, “ὁ ἵππος”/ho hippos” means “horse” as a "male horse/stallion", while  “ἡ ἵππος “ / hê  híppos” means “mare/female horse”.

Finally I have to point out that ancient Greek is an inflected language where the endings change according to the singular/plural/feminine/masculine/ direct/indirect object, for ancient Greek has three declensions and five cases(nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative).


Hope this can be helpful to you.
Have a nice day,
Maria