As I'm sure the boys would have learnt at Charterhouse school,
Latin nouns ending in "-um" are usually 2nd declension neuter,
and would change their ending to "-a" in the plural of the vocative case
(which would be the case when yelling "HERECLEUM MANTIGAZZIANA!!" at them)
"-i" is the genitive singular? Perhaps this was a subtle linguistic pun, using a Latin form of "grocer's apostrophe".
Having said that, I doubt any word with a double z in it is authentic classical Latin to begin with!
KILL ME!
Latin nouns ending in "-um" are usually 2nd declension neuter,
and would change their ending to "-a" in the plural of the vocative case
(which would be the case when yelling "HERECLEUM MANTIGAZZIANA!!" at them)
"-i" is the genitive singular? Perhaps this was a subtle linguistic pun, using a Latin form of "grocer's apostrophe".
Having said that, I doubt any word with a double z in it is authentic classical Latin to begin with!
KILL ME!
--- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, "trawnajim" <jimab@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> --- In newmellotrongroup@yahoogroups.com, "John Wright" <john.wright@> wrote:
> >
> > Heracleum mantegazziani!
>
> Unless there has been some change in the taxonomy for this plant, I think the boys got it slightly wrong. The correct Latin name is mategazzianum. Then again, there could be a pluralization involved that I'm unaware of.
>
> Jim Bailey
>