§251. Verbal Adjectives
Adjectives expressing the action of the verb as a quality or tendency are formed from real or apparent verb-stems with the suffixes—
-āx, -idus, -ulus, -vus (-uus, -īvus, -tīvus)
-āx denotes a faulty or aggressive tendency; -tīvus is oftener passive.
| pūgn-āx, pugnacious; | pūgnāre, to fight. |
| aud-āx, bold; | audēre, to dare. |
| cup-idus, eager; | cupere, to desire. |
| bib-ulus, thirsty (as dry earth etc.); | bibere, to drink. |
| proter-vus, violent, wanton; | prōterere, to trample. |
| noc-uus ( noc-īvus), hurtful, injurious; | nocēre, to do harm. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| recid-īvus, restored; | recidere, to fall back. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| cap-tīvus, captive; M., a prisoner of war; | capere, to take. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
-idus is no doubt denominative, as in herbidus, grassy (from herba, herb); tumidus, swollen (cf. tumu-lus, hill; tumul-tus, uproar); callidus, tough, cunning (cf. callum, tough flesh); mūcidus, slimy (cf. mūcus, slime); tābidus, wasting (cf. tābēs, wasting disease). But later it was used to form adjectives directly from verb-stems.
-ulus is the same suffix as in diminutives, but attached to verb-stems. Cf. aemulus, rivalling (cf. imitor and imāgō); sēdulus, sitting by, attentive (cf. domi-seda, homestaying, and sēdō, set, settle, hence calm); pendulus, hanging (cf. pondō, ablative, in weight; perpendiculum, a plummet; appendix, an addition); strāgulus, covering (cf. strāgēs); legulus, a picker (cf. sacri-legus, a picker up of things sacred).
-vus seems originally primary (cf. § 234. 2.8), but -īvus and -tīvus have become secondary and are used with nouns: as, aestīvus, of summer (from aestus, heat); tempestīvus, timely (from tempus); cf. domes-ticus (from domus).
J. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough, New Latin Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1903). Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.