Re: CHAT: duumvirate (was: congovernment)

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"

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