Monday, December 10, 2007

pecco, peccare

My Latin word for today is pecco, peccare, peccavi, peccatus meaning 'to sin; do wrong, blunder, stumble, be wrong, make a mistake, act incorrectly, be faulty'. This word has given us a number of English derivations, such as impeccable (faultless, flawless; as in 'a woman of impeccable taste') and peccadillo (a minor offense).

In the 1840s, the general Charles James Napier, the british commander-in-chief in India, also used the word in another sense; having subjugated the province of Sindh in Pakistan, he sent a message back to his headquarters saying simply, peccavi- 'I have sinned/Sindh'.

3 comments:

byron smith said...

Ha ha!

Selena Belle said...

Sir -

Just quickly, with the style questions for Livy - is it alright if I only hand in those for part one tomorrow... well, today, I suppose. (In my defence, Lachlan was on the computer, uploading a David Bowie CD which kept me from working until... 12:15 a.m. Okay, that sounded weak to me too...)

Also, with the grammar questions, Proelio is (e) none of the above. It's an ablative of means, Sir. Ablatives of manner [[which I presume this was intended to be]] can be turned into adverbs.

Anonymous said...

that's fine for the livy, and re: proelio- mea culpa