Archaic Passive Infinitive in -ier

Early and poetic Latin can use a present passive infinitive in -ier where standard Classical prose normally has -ī: amārier beside amārī “to be loved,” monērier beside monērī “to be warned,” and dīcier beside dīcī “to be said.” The longer form is (archaic) and (literary), especially common in early drama and Lucretius and occasionally revived by later poets.

The ending changes neither tense nor voice. It is not a future, a perfect, or a personal form. For active verbs it remains a present passive infinitive; for deponents, whose passive morphology carries an active lexical meaning, the same archaic ending can appear with active translation.

How the form is built

The second principal part reveals the present stem and conjugation. A practical recognition rule is to compare the ordinary present passive infinitive and replace its final -ī with -ier:

This is a present-system formation. The perfect stem dīx- and supine stem dict- do not participate. Forms such as dīxier or dictier therefore cannot be built merely because English says “to be said.”

In active production, use standard accūsārī and audīrī unless you are imitating an early or poetic register. Recognition is far more important than creative use.

No person or number, but real tense and voice

An infinitive is non-finite: it has no first, second, or third person and no singular/plural personal ending. Its understood or expressed subject comes from syntax. In accusative-and-infinitive indirect statement, that subject is accusative.

Both use present infinitive servārier. “Present” here means simultaneous with the governing verb: it is being saved when they speak in the first sentence and was being saved when they spoke in the second. English tense changes because the reporting verb changes; the Latin infinitive does not become imperfect.

The passive subject is the patient, while an expressed personal agent normally takes ā/ab plus ablative. This is the same syntax as standard servārī.

Here pācem is the accusative subject of passive comparārier and also the understood subject of posse. The sequence of infinitives may feel unlike English, but changing the archaic ending does not change the construction.

Deponents keep their active lexical meaning

Deponent verbs have passive-looking forms but normally active meanings. Their standard present infinitive hortārī “to encourage” can appear as archaic hortārier; sequī “to follow” can appear as sequier. The ending does not make a deponent semantically passive.

This is a place where an English-first analysis fails badly. English “to be encouraged” would require a passive analysis, but Latin starts from the lexical fact that hortor is deponent. Consult what deponent verbs are when the apparent voice and translation diverge.

Authentic examples and their register

Plautus uses the ending naturally in comic dialogue and social observation:

The quotation is reproduced in source spelling. Dīcier is the present passive infinitive of dīcō, governed by possit: “can be said.” Its appearance is consistent with early Latin, not an error for Classical-prose dīcī.

Catullus deliberately uses the longer infinitive in elegiac verse:

Here hominēs is the accusative subject of passive componier. The form is from compōnō, compōnere, composuī, compositum, but the relevant stem is present compōn-, not perfect composu- or supine composit-.

A parsing decision routine

When a word ends in -ier:

1. Test whether replacing -ier with -ī produces an attested present passive or deponent infinitive.
2. Recover the present stem from the first two principal parts.
3. Identify the governing verb or impersonal expression.
4. Find any accusative subject and passive agent.
5. Translate the infinitive as simultaneous with its governing verb.
6. Mark its register (archaic/literary) rather than treating it as neutral prose.

This procedure is more reliable than starting from an English “to be” phrase, which supplies neither the Latin stem nor the historical ending.

Common Mistakes

1. Treating -ier as a future marker

2. Building from the perfect or supine stem

3. Giving an indirect-statement subject nominative case

4. Translating a deponent infinitive as passive

Key Takeaways

The ending -ier marks an archaic and poetic present passive infinitive, or the corresponding deponent infinitive. It has no person or number and expresses time relative to its governing verb. Recover the present stem, preserve passive or deponent syntax, and recognize the register; in ordinary Classical prose composition, use the standard infinitive in -ī.