Latin: not as dead as it looks?

Posted by Bob Williams on July 19, 2001

In Reply to: Re: Carrying the goose posted by Bruce Kahl on July 19, 2001

: >>>>>My (vague) understanding is that "defero" carries the sense of "to bring or offer," as well as "to carry." If correct, this would make the line "Anserem assum defero." Does this sound acceptable?

: Yes, if it is used as in: "The retailer carries the full line of rewritable drives".

: No, if it is used as in: "The retailer carried under his arm a delivery of drives to the warehouse to be coded and shelved for sale."

: The textbook meaning of defero:
: to bear, to bring
: to hand over, carry down, communicate, offer, refer.

: I went to a private, all boys, parochial high school where we studied Latin for 2 90 minute periods a day for 4 years to prepare us for a life in the priesthood in the Catholic church. Then along the same vein in college so I tend to be a bit of a purist.
: I still wince at the sight of a preposition ending a sentence.
: But then again if it makes sense just a bit and it fits the rhyme then liberties can be taken via poetic license.
: Just dont let Brother Michael catch ya!

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I will gladly yield to you and Brother Michael and the weighty authority of parochial school Latin. A couple of thoughts: Could the sense of "defero" have shifted at all since the 15th century? Is the corpus of Latin still twitching a bit? Or did the carol intend the meaning to be "I hand over a roast goose," and my gloss of "carry" was at fault? Did "defero" just better fit the meter? Or did the jolly wassailers of Old England simply sing fractured Latin?

Many thanks for all your help.

• Re: Latin: not as dead as it looks? Bruce Kahl 07/19/01