Lexicon and semantics: meaning in context, etymology and Latin roots
What the lexicon question tests
Domain 3 asks for the meaning of a word or expression as it functions in the passage, and for its semantic family: etymology, Latin root, and reflexes in Basque, Spanish, French or English. The examiners reward context-sensitive translation, not the first dictionary gloss. A word such as res can mean 'thing', 'matter', 'affair', 'property' or 'state'; only the sentence decides. For etymology questions, give the Latin lemma, its stem, and one modern reflex; do not invent a link where the phonology does not fit.
Core rules
- Read the whole clause before choosing a sense; check collocations (res publica, res gestae, res novae).
- Learn idioms as units: operam dare 'to pay attention', gratias agere 'to thank', in dies 'day by day', quam ob rem 'for this reason', bellum inferre 'to make war on'.
- Distinguish near-synonyms: bellum 'war' vs proelium 'battle'; urbs 'city' (especially Rome) vs oppidum 'town'; vir 'man' vs homo 'human being'.
- Trace etymology: dux, ducis > conducir, producir; miles, militis > militar; urbs > urban; aqua > acuático; pax, pacis > pacificar.
- Note semantic change and metaphor, e.g. fortuna 'chance, luck, fortune' and also 'storm'.
Worked example
Word: imperium in three phrases. (a) imperium Romanum: 'Roman rule/empire', the territorial and political power. (b) imperium militare: 'military command', the general's authority. (c) imperium consulare: 'consular power', the magistracy's legal authority. Reasoning: the adjective narrows the sense; imperium is abstract power, not a physical place, unless the context adds fines or provinciae.
Traps
- Using a false friend: pretium is 'price/value/reward', not 'prayer'.
- Confusing hostis 'enemy' with hospes 'guest/host'.
- Giving an etymology without checking the root (e.g., deriving miles from mille).
- Translating a word in isolation when the passage uses a technical or metaphorical sense.
- Ignoring the difference between a word's root and a borrowed doublet.