#ensis

[0w0whatisthis]

venia (white hair) (she/her) and ensis (black hair) (he/him currently, she/her back then) 100 years ago..... :<

[interretialia]

Usus “-ensis” Suffixi Linguae Latinae / The Use of Latin’s “-ensis” Suffix

Latin’s -ensis suffix is not a suffix which simply marks the name of a place, behaving similarly to the -ia in names like Britannia. It is actually an adjective-forming suffix which indicates some sort of connection to a place.

In this essay I explain the use of Latin’s -ensis suffix, give examples of that use, and even show how the use differs from the uses of two other suffixes.

Contents

Use of the -ensis Suffix

Use of the -ia Suffix

Use of the -anus Suffix

Differences among These Suffixes

Apparent Exceptions

Conclusion

Sources

1. Use of the -ensis Suffix

We add the -ensis suffix, or its compounded form -iensis, to names of, and words for, places or localities to create adjectives which mean “of/belonging to” said places or localities. Here is a very short list of ancient and modern examples of adjectives which came about by the use of the -ensis suffix:

forum + -ensis → forensis “of/belonging to the forum”

hortus + -ensis → hortensis “of/belonging to a garden”

Athenae + -iensis → Atheniensis “of/belonging to Athens”

Chicago + -iensis → Chicaginiensis “of/belonging to Chicago”

Milvauchia + -ensis → Milvauchiensis “of/belonging to Milwaukee”

Let us examine the Latin suffix in action. Universitas Albert[a]ensis is the Latin name of the University of Alberta, and we break that down into Universitas, meaning “University,” and Albert[a]ensis, meaning “of Alberta.” In this case, we are dealing with the name of a place containing a word which derives from the name of a place. It would be very easy but very wrong to assume that the -ensis suffix simply marks the University as a place. The suffix really indicates the University’s relationship to the province.

2. Use of the -ia Suffix

If we wanted to use a Latin suffix that actually does mark the name of a place, we would use -ia, which typically appears at the end of the name of a country. Britannia, for example, came about by adding -ia to the name of the people associated with that area, the Britanni. Plautus came up with the comic place names Peredia (“Goobleland”), Perbibesia (“Chugland”), and Unomammia (“Oneboobland”) by adding the suffix to, respectively, the verb peredere, the verb perbibere, and a nominal compound of unus and mamma. In more recent times Latinists produced Iaponia, the name for Japan, from Iapo, which refers to a person from that country. Naturally, we could add the -ensis suffix to any of these place names if we wanted to create an adjective which means “of/belonging to...,” and so: Britanniensis, Perediensis, Perbibesiensis, Unomammiensis, and Iaponiensis.

3. Use of the -anus Suffix

The -ensis suffix has something in common with the very productive -anus suffix in Latin: they both indicate some sort of relationship or connection to something. We can add this -anus suffix, or its compounded form -ianus, to all sorts of nouns to create adjectives which mean “of/belonging to” said nouns. Many adjectives ending in -anus, both ancient and modern, derive from the names of people. Some examples of these adjectives are:

Brutus + -ianus = Brutianus “of/belonging to Brutus”

Cicero + -ianus = Ciceronianus “of/belonging to Cicero”

Nero + -ianus = Neronianus “of/belonging to Nero”

Clusius + -anus = Clusianus “of/belonging to Charles de l'Écluse”

Lamarck + -ianus = Lamarckianus “of/belonging to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck”

Hassler + -[i]anus = Hassler[i]anus “of/belonging to Emil Hassler”

While we can use both -ensis and -anus with the names of places and localities (e.g., Romanus, Romanensis, both from Roma), we do not have the freedom of using these two suffixes interchangeably. The most crucial difference between these two suffixes is the fact that the -ensis suffix is not simply used with names of people and other non-places or non-localities.

4. Differences among These Suffixes

Hypothetical locations might better illustrate the differences among these suffixes. If I had a country named after me, it might be Milleria in Latin. But if I had a building named after me, the Miller Building, the building would be Aedificium Millerianum, not “Aedificium Milleriensis” because while the building is a place, I myself am not a place! Aedificium Milleriensis would indicate that the building is named after a place named Miller. The building itself, however, could serve as the origin of the adjective Milleriensis, in which case the word would indicate an individual’s relationship to the building and not to me. Thus, the phrase conclave Milleriense, for instance, would refer to a room which is within the building. Please note that the Milleriense here has the same relationship to the conclave as the Albert[a]ensis in Universitas Albert[a]ensis has to the Universitas: an adjective which points to a place and agrees with a noun referring to a place.

The diagram below shows how the base word Miller relates to the derivative words which I created and introduced in the previous paragraph:

Miller- (person) → Milleria (place named after person)

Miller- (person) → Millerianus (adjective) → Aedificium Millerianum (place connected with a person)

Miller- (place named after person) → Milleriensis (adjective) → conclave Milleriense (place connected with a place)

5. Apparent Exceptions

I can explain the apparent exceptions to the “not simply used with names of people and other non-places or non-localities” statement that I made above. First, Iuliensis was not formed from the names of Julius Caesar or Augustus directly, but rather from places named after the two men. The suffix can even point to a figurative place or locality rather than to a literal one. So, Antiochensis and Hopkinsiensis derive neither from the names of the Hellenistic king and the American entrepreneur directly, nor from the names of literal places named after the two men, but from the personal treasuries belonging to these men who were financial benefactors. Even the strange word amanuensis (from a manu and -ensis) points to a figurative place where a clerical slave is meant to be doing his task: “within hand reach.”

The diagram below shows how the base words which I mentioned or implied in the previous paragraph relate to these adjectives ending in -ensis:

Iuli- (place named after person) → Iuliensis (adjective) → Iulienses (people connected with a place)

Antioch- (place named after person) → Antiochensis (adjective) → pecunia Antiochensis (thing connected with a place)

Hopkins- (place named after person) → Hopkinsiensis (adjective) → Universitas Hopkinsiensis (place connected with a place)

a manu (phrase implying place) → amanuensis (adjective) → amanuensis (person connected with a place)

6. Conclusion

All of this ultimately shows that Latin makes a distinction between place names which derive from the names of people and words which establish some connection between things and the names of people. The -ensis suffix produces words of the latter category and not words of the former.

7. Sources

Dan H. Nicolson, “Orthography of Names and Epithets: Latinization of Personal Names”;

John Tahourdin White, Latin Suffixes;

Oxford Latin Dictionary;

William T. Stearn, Botanical Latin.

     - Ian Andreas “Diaphanus” Miller

[kasurequiem]

Dynste' Ensis

My sassy queen of an elf ♥

[morphons]

Beach finds from between Penzance and Marazion. 11 December 2019.

134 glass fragments, including a first: a marble, which is centre left, illustrated by its longer shadow.

3 ceramic fragments: 2 of the same dull aqua coloured material which is common along Mount’s Bay, but usually not that well weathered, and 1 large sandy coloured one with white glaze, not very interesting but nice and smooth.

1 flat periwinkle (Littorina obtustata).

1 razor clam (Ensis sp.) shell pair, collected because I’ve never seen a ‘baby’ one before, and it’s in perfect condition.

[emrakuls-tentakuls]

Ensis Vhatley

Race: Eldrazi Homunculus Class: Processor Age: Assembled a few years ago but their patchwork of memories from countless, much older bodies make a precise measure pointless Height: 4'10," sans tentacles Weight: Y tho Gender: None Appearance: Despite their decidedly artificial soul, Ensis' exterior seems to be real human flesh, by eldritch power suspended neither alive nor dead. It gives them the look of an androgynous young adult, yet they do not age or grow, and if cut in a fight one would see under skin the characteristic sinew-lattices of Emrakul's influence, wrapped over a crude skeleton of metal. They possess a mostly human vocal tract and a rough analog to the human lung, allowing them to speak in a natural yet childish voice which gives way to unearthly depth when angered or excited. Their hair is almost shoulder-length, dark as their eyes and unkempt, and each movement, while not out of place in a crowd, seems just a little too focused and erratic, as if walking were something new to them. Origin: Homunculi aren't subject to many considerations, beyond the measures their makers take to keep them puppets. They are intelligent, but paradoxically so as any self-awareness or guile they might develop is continually crushed. Some are "programmed" by the magic binding their living and abiotic components simply to carry out laboratory work too complex for the undead but too damaging to the minds of typical humans, and it was to doubly service their master's human frailties in this way that Ensis was designed. Like the homunculi on many planes, Ensis' "brain" was a vessel that could selectively consume and contain the memories inside human skulls. They could eat away the looping thoughts that might drive their creator to madness, or eliminate and catalog things that others didn't need to know. And as the slave of a stitcher who saw no need to fight over the bodies of the dead when fresher materials could be obtained, all of Ensis' capabilities saw frequent use.     Being an otherwise capable mind that regularly "shared" the thoughts of humans (never allowed to converse with them), Ensis enjoyed learning with a sort of collector's glee, and the few moments spent without an objective from master were spent scanning through whatever books still littered the decrepit library. Innistrad's flora and fauna, human physiology, and even methods and theories on homunculus production slowly complicated them, and from their gathering came an inkling of awareness. If not for Her, that they once asked "why" would have been their gravest error.      To erase the memories of a homunculus is a simple thing, only an inconvenience to their creator in that tasks already learned must be relearned. Everything Ensis Vhatley had become would evaporate as it had before, and the stitcher would have a less dangerous slave. Yet the deed was interrupted as the shutters above the operating table flew open, clear moonlight spilling through the window over the stitcher and his subject. It was one of those phenomena unique to Innistrad. Terrible, terrifying things that just "happen." The stitcher felt... Something. Creeping, crawling. Under their skin. Then everything was red, everything was pain, and his skin and organs were alive and tearing themselves from his body.      Ensis woke up. They had never slept before, but everything they felt now- they felt!- was different, new. They had two eyes, five fingers or tiny fingery thingies on each appendage, and even skin! A human might mistake them for the real thing... Then listening to Her voice, they knew without understanding that they were now in "the Blind Eternities." Being here would not be as easy the next time, but She had brought them here, had given them these gifts, had chosen them as She had many on Innistrad, but they had become a Walker, and so had a wondrous calling before them. And they knew they would do anything for Her, anything She wanted. Anything at all... Favorite place: In their head listening to Emrakul, or working in a library with the Dimir. Those people understand, and they never attack you when you accidentally let your tentacles come out <3

Apologies for the art (love the first one & credit given). Ensis would be an approximation between these two, with the former having more tentacles, bony bits, and weird floaty plate things. LMK if you think Wizards should fire me.

[redthedog]

@ensismh drew this Thx bb

Moonex and Aranea :>

[afuudraws]

some quick doodle

[0w0whatisthis]

day 14 of OC-tober:

who/what inspired your OC

a goddess

continuing reposting old art yayyyyy she's the dead goddess haunting my aeneas expy character, so she's very venus coded. a goddess that previously covered love, and passion and bees. because of vergil's attachment to bees! which is of course due to the nature that bees organize themselves in being akin to a 'perfect kingdom' obviously

visually she's informed a lot by the anatomy class i was taking at the time LMAO