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Sensu is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law.Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular concept, but it also appears in expressions that indicate the convention or context of the usage.
Latin declension is the set of patterns according to which Latin words are declined—that is, have their endings altered to show grammatical case, number and gender.Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are declined (verbs are conjugated), and a given pattern is called a declension.
In contrast with the first-and second-declension endings, those of the third declension lack a theme vowel (a or o/u in the first and second declensions) and so are called athematic. One distinguishing feature of third-declension nouns is a genitive singular ending of a short vowel and s : Latin rēg-is "of a king" Greek χειρ-ός ( cheir ...
4th declension nouns are usually masculine, but a few, such as manus "hand" and anus "old lady", are feminine. There are only four 4th declension neuter nouns. [9] 5th declension nouns (except for diēs (m) "day") are usually feminine. rēs "thing" is similar to diēs except for a short e in the genitive and dative singular reī.
In the Attic dialect, some masculine second-declension nouns and some adjectives have endings with lengthened vowels. Some nouns in this category end in -εως, which developed from an original *-ηος by the process of quantitative metathesis (switching of vowel lengths). All second-declension endings containing ο were transformed: ο, ου ...
Latin word order is relatively free. The verb may be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence; an adjective may precede or follow its noun (vir bonus or bonus vir both mean 'a good man'); [5] and a genitive may precede or follow its noun ('the enemies' camp' can be both hostium castra and castra hostium; the latter is more common). [6]
If the noun is definite, the adjective can be predicative: [186] agrōs dēseruit incultōs. [187] "He abandoned the fields, leaving them uncultivated." Sometimes the noun, not the adjective, is focussed, and the adjective is a mere tail, as in the following: [188] multum tē in eō frāter adiuvābit meus, multum Balbus. [189]
The oldest system of declension was in Proto-Indo-European, inherited by Sanskrit, to affix the endings directly to the nominal root. In later stages, a new system developed wherein an intermediary called the thematic vowel is inserted to the root before the final endings are appended: *-o-which in Sanskrit becomes -a-, producing the thematic stem.