Titvs Classics delivers the Latin word of the week along with questions to engage with your kids on how the word is used, what it means, and how it influences our English Language today. Sign up for our Newsletter today!
Dono, -are – I Give
This week’s word of the week is Dono, -are. It means “to give”. There are so many words in the Latin Language for giving. This month we will explore a few of them as we prepare for the Christmas season.
St. Martin of Tours
St. Martin of Tours the perfect saint to kick off our series on giving. His feast day is November 11. St. Martin was not only a military man (making veterans day a great feast day) but he was known for his act of giving.
St. Martin was a Roman solider stationed in modern day France. He was traveling through a town when a beggar dressed in nothing but rags caught his attention. It was winter, and very cold out. St. Martin took out his sword and cut his own cloak into two pieces. He gave half of it to the beggar.
There are a couple different versions of the story, in one – Martin later dreams that Jesus was the beggar wearing the cloak, and in another, when he awakes the next morning his cloak is fully restored.
St. Martin’s cloak was later added to the royal treasury in 679 AD. The priests who took care of the cloak (cape) were called cappellanu and priests who served in the military were called cappellani. The French translation is chapelains and it is where we get our word “Chaplain.
Similarly, there were small church’s build to house the relic called “capella”. This later gave us our English word “chapel”
English Derivatives
- Donation: Noun. Meaning – an act or instance of presenting something as a gift, grant, or contribution.
- Condone: Verb. Meaning – to give tacit approval to
- Donative: Noun. Meaning – a gift or donation.
- Donate: Verb. Meaning – to make a gift, grant, or contribution of something; give; contribute:
- Donator: Noun. Meaning – one who gives, grants, or contributes to something.
- Pardon: Noun. Meaning – kind indulgence, as in forgiveness of an offense or discourtesy or in tolerance of a distraction or inconvenience:
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