ramale

Latin

Etymology

Substantivized neuter of rāmālis, from rāmus (“branch”) +‎ -ālis (“-al”).

Noun

rāmāle n (genitive rāmālis); third declension

  1. (in the plural) twigs, shoots, sticks
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.644–645:
      Multifidāsque facēs rāmāliaque ārida tēctō
      dētulit et minuit parvōque admōvit aēnō.
      Cleft torches and dry sticks from the abode
      she took and chopped and brought to a small bronze vessel.
  2. brushwood, undergrowth

Usage notes

This noun is almost exclusively pluralia tantum. The singular is however encountered, very rarely:

c. 62 CE, Persius, Saturae 1.97–98:
'"Arma virum!" Nōnne hoc spūmōsum et cortice pinguī,
ut rāmāle vetus vēgrandī sūbere coctum?
'"Arms and the man!" Is this not bombastic, with a thick shell,
like an old twig cooked with a great cork-tree?

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, pure i-stem).

singular plural
nominative rāmāle rāmālia
genitive rāmālis rāmālium
dative rāmālī rāmālibus
accusative rāmāle rāmālia
ablative rāmālī rāmālibus
vocative rāmāle rāmālia

References

  • “ramale”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • ramale in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
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