Andrew Arth
5.8.20
Latin Acta
Verbum Deep Dive
Īgnis, īgnis, a masculine noun meaning fire is one that perhaps is less popular in antiquity than one might initially imagine. The 266th most frequently used word in antiquity is most easily defined as “fire,” but is often extended in poetry to describe a fury or rage of characters, allowing for a more tangible description of the narrative. One of the more fascinating things about the word īgnis is that it is used to describe fires of all kinds. For example, īgnis can be used to describe a fire of malicious intent, a general fire for warmth, or even fires for cooking purposes. The multiplicity of the dimensions of this word makes it one of the most versatile in the language and further cements latin’s ability to bend and manipulate words to fit the author’s or speaker’s intentions, as opposed to conforming to the rigidity that other languages may be hemmed in by. It is also a cognate to multiple English words that have derived from it’s meaning, perhaps the most famous of which is the verb to ignite, meaning to light on fire. It also is the word from which igneous rock stems, referring to rock that has formed from the cooling of magma. The word also has a plethora of cognates in the latin language itself such as the verb ignio, ignire, ignivi, ignitus, meaning to light on fire. The commonality of this word latin and its various uses or meanings lead to its widespread popularity and thus its large number of derivatives in multiple languages.
Examples from Corpus
“quae castra , ut fumo atque ignibus significabatur , amplius milibus passuum VIII latitudinem patebant.” – Julius Caesar, Gallic War
“…inroravere liquores vestibus et capiti , flectunt vestigia sanctae ad delubra deae , quorum fastigia turpi pallebant musco stabantque sine ignibus arae .”- Ovid, Metamorphoses