HenHanna wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Oct 2024 21:13:19 +0000, wugi wrote:
>
>> Op 23/10/2024 om 15:23 schreef HenHanna:
>>> “Nil sapientiae odiosius (est) acumine nimio.”
>>>
>>>
>>> I guess... in Latin texts, you use Sentence-final periods?
>>>
>>>
>>> wow... One puzzling part is... How is [genitive] working?
>>>
>>>
>>> Here, "sapientiae" doesn't indicate possession; rather, it
>>> specifies the quality or characteristic that is being considered. It's
>>> more like saying "Nothing is more hateful in terms of wisdom."
>>
>> I think that's a dative here.
>> Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than...
>
>
>
> thank you... Dative sounds more right.
>
>
> “Nil sapientiae odiosius (est) acumine nimio.”
>
> ------- this was by E A Poe.
>
>
> similar sentiment expressed by Bacon, or someone???
Very readily construed as genitive case along the lines of "nil novi",
"nil lucri", "nil veri" etc. That construction also makes some kind of
sense semantically, as well as grammatically.
It's one of those cases of genuine ambiguity, where I like to go to the
source and see the context.
Edgar Allan Poe quotes it in his "The Purloined Letter", and attributes
it to Seneca. But it comes from a dialogue of Petrarch's.
Gaudium: Acutissimum ingenium est mihi.
Ratio: Nil sapientiae odiosius acumine nimio. Nihil vero philosophanti
molestius quam sophista
(Joy: My intellect is sharpest.
Reason: Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than too much acumen; nothing
more troublesome to a real thinking person than a sophist.)
I think that pins it down as dative (as wugi claims). Good silver Latin,
and I must admit that Seneca the Stoic does come to mind.
Ed
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