Re: CHAT: duumvirate (was: congovernment)
From: | John Cowan <cowan@...> |
Date: | Sunday, November 23, 2003, 22:28 |
Ray Brown scripsit:
> A 'triumuir' is actually 'trium uir' = "a man out of three [men]",
> i.e. one of a board or tribunal of three. The plural can be _triumuiri_
> but the logical _tres uiri_ ('the three men [of the board]') was
> also used. But the office held by each _triumuir_ was known as a
> _triumuiratus_ (4th decl.), hence English _triumvirate_.
<rant>It just drives me nuts when people apply "triumvirate" to anything
not involving three *persons* -- I think the crowning case was a company
that referred to its three sub-businesses as a "triumvirate".</rant>
> O tempora! O mores!
*sigh*
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis, or else.
--
"And it was said that ever after, if any John Cowan
man looked in that Stone, unless he had a jcowan@reutershealth.com
great strength of will to turn it to other www.ccil.org/~cowan
purpose, he saw only two aged hands withering www.reutershealth.com
in flame." --"The Pyre of Denethor"
Replies