trisaeclisenex

Latin

Etymology

Coined by Laevius, from tri- (“three”) +‎ saeclum (“generation”) +‎ senex (“old person”).

Pronunciation

Noun

trisaeclisenex m or f (genitive trisaeclisenis); third declension

  1. (hapax legomenon, humorous) An old person who has lived for three generations.
    • c. 177 CE, Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 19.7:
      Cetera enim, quae videbantur nimium poetica, ex prosae orationis usu alieniora praetermisimus; veluti fuit quod de Nestore ait "trisaeclisenex" et "dulciorelocus", item quod de tumidis magnisque fluctibus "fluctibus," inquit, "multigrumis" et flumina gelu concreta "tegmine" esse "onychino" dixit et quae multiplica ludens conposuit, quale illud est, quod vituperones suos "subductisupercilicarptores" appellavit.
      But others we passed over as too poetic and unsuited to use in prose; for example, when he calls Nestor trisaeclisenex, or “an old man who had lived three generations” and dulciorelocus isle, or “that sweet-mouthed speaker,” when he calls great swelling waves multigruma, or “great-hillocked,” and says that rivers congealed by the cold have an onychinum tegimen, or “an onyx covering”; also his many humorous multiple compounds, as when he calls his detractors subductisupercilicarptores, or “carpers with raised eye-brows.”

Declension

Third-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative trisaeclisenex trisaeclisenēs
genitive trisaeclisenis trisaeclisenum
dative trisaeclisenī trisaeclisenibus
accusative trisaeclisenem trisaeclisenēs
ablative trisaeclisene trisaeclisenibus
vocative trisaeclisenex trisaeclisenēs

References

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