Breakdown of Medica dicit hoc medicamentum morbum levare posse.
dicere
to say
medica
the female doctor
hic
this
medicamentum
the medicine
Questions & Answers about Medica dicit hoc medicamentum morbum levare posse.
What does medica mean here, and why isn’t it medicus?
Medica is a noun meaning female doctor (literally “woman doctor/physician”). It’s the feminine form of medicus (male doctor / doctor in general, depending on context). Latin often marks the person’s gender directly in the noun ending: medic-us (masc.) vs medic-a (fem.).
What tense is dicit, and what does that imply?
Dicit is present tense, 3rd person singular: “she says.” In context it can be a “present” that reports speech generally or vividly (English might sometimes still translate it as “said” depending on narrative style, but grammatically it’s present).
Why doesn’t Latin use a word for “that” after dicit?
After verbs of saying/thinking/knowing, Latin typically uses an indirect statement construction instead of a “that”-clause. So instead of “says that …,” Latin often uses:
- accusative + infinitive Here, the “that”-idea is built into the grammar rather than expressed with a separate word.
Why are hoc medicamentum in the accusative? They look like objects of dicit, but the meaning isn’t “she says this medicine.”
In an indirect statement, the subject of the reported statement goes into the accusative.So is not the direct object of ; it is the :