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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

Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>
Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>