Latin Adjectives in Current Use

What Is an Adjective?

An adjective describes a noun or a pronoun; it gives the reader or listener more information. The words “a,” “an,” and “the” are adjectives. The following are some examples and explanations of different kinds of adjectives.

Possessive adjectives can modify a noun or a noun phrase, like “Is that your cell number?” where the adjective “your” modifies the phrase “cell number”. Other examples include: my, his, her, our, their, and its.
Demonstrative adjectives tell us more about nouns or noun phrases. For example, in the sentence “That silly cat fell into the tub,” “that” modifies “silly cat.” Other demonstrative adjectives are: this, these, what, and those.
“Which” and “what” are examples of interrogative adjectives, which also modify nouns or noun phrases. An example would be “What game are you going to see?” where “What” is asking about the word “game.”
Indefinite adjectives are words like: many, any, few, and all. A sample sentence is: “All dogs go to heaven.” “All” modifies “dogs” but does not tell you exactly how many, so it is indefinite.

Some adjectives express degrees of modification, like “rich, richer, and richest,” or “pretty, prettier, or prettiest.” Another example is good, better, best. These three levels of comparison are called “positive,”” comparative,” and “superlative.” However, some adjectives can not have three levels or even two levels of comparison. Examples of these are: impossible, complete, final, perpetual, universal, whole, devoid, ideal, and minor.

Well Known Latin Adjectives

More than half of the words in the English language are nouns. Adjectives make up about one quarter of the words, and verbs make up around one seventh. The rest of the words is everything else: conjunctions, prepositions, exclamations, etc.

Some Latin adjectives in current use are used often enough so that they are familiar to many people. One of them is the word “emeritus” which refers to a person who has retired or been discharged from a position but retains the title of that position. In Latin, the word means “having fully earned” so it is used to honor the person.

Another example is the word “fidelis.” It means “faithful” or “trustworthy” and is well known for its use in the phrase “Semper Fidelis” which is the motto of the US Marine Corps and is sometimes shortened to “Semper Fi.”

“Gratis” means you are getting something free. “Gratis” is the plural of the word “gratia” which in Latin means “favor” or “kindness.” The word “simplex” means “simple, pure, or single.”