Disputatio:os

Declinatio

Is the declension table for ŏs (pars sceleti) correct? Shouldn't the singular ablative be ossī for a neuter i-stem 3rd-declension noun? If the table is correct, could a source be cited, and are there other nouns with the same unusual pattern? Or is the table simply incorrect? --EncycloPetey 18:27, 24 Iulii 2008 (UTC)

It's not an i-stem; if it were, the plural would be 'ossia'. Allen and Greenough list it as an irregular noun, and IIRC the table was built directly from theirs: [1] —Mucius Tever 13:49, 25 Iulii 2008 (UTC)

Also, should the genitive plural be ossum or ossium? A search at the Latin Wikisource turned up two authors for each form. Lucius Apuleius [2] and Peturs Comestor [3] use ossium, while Petrus Abaelardus [4] and Isidorus Hispalensis [Etymologiarum libri XX - Liber XI] use ossum. --EncycloPetey 19:14, 24 Iulii 2008 (UTC)

The normal genitive is 'ossium'. I don't know why you quote Abaelardus as an example; the only instance of 'ossum' on that page is 1) in the singular 2) not in the genitive and 3) in a sentence about speaking unusually to be easier understood by people who don't speak Latin well: "cur pietatis doctorem pigeat imperitis loquentem ossum potius quam os dicere, ne ista syllaba non ab eo quod sunt ossa sed ab eo quod sunt ora intelligatur?" ("Why should a teacher of piety regret saying 'ossum' rather than 'os' to the uneducated, so that by this syllable the word from which more than one is 'ossa' can be understood from the one from which more than one is 'ora'?"). Print editions of Isidore seem to use either 'ossium' or the rarer variant 'ossuum' in that place; there's only one text, copied across a few places on the web (thelatinlibrary, wikisource, bibliotheca augustana...), that has 'ossum' in "vertibula sunt summae ____ partes", while sentences just before and after use 'ossuum'; it's probably a typo. google books [5] —Mucius Tever 13:49, 25 Iulii 2008 (UTC)

I agree with Mycēs. My dictionary has an appendix where all Latin declensions with examples are listed. The examples also include "os" and the abl. sing. there is "osse", the nom. plur. "ossa" and the gen. plur. "ossium". --Abmf 14:06, 25 Iulii 2008 (UTC)

Thanks very much. --EncycloPetey 17:39, 25 Iulii 2008 (UTC)