A new approach is needed

[Charlie Pelletier]

persona, -ae: first declension

persona
personae
persona
personam
persona

in + the accusative = against + (whatever)
personam: accusative singular
'in' takes the dative except in cases of accusation: Cicero's In
Catilinam for example.
In personam = against the person
in persona = in, to or for person.

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 16:33:17 -0400, John Cowan <jcowan at reutershealth.com> wrote:
> dlw scripsit:
> 
> > "In personam" in the law is the latin dative (objective) case meaning
> > "against the person".
> 
> Accusative case.
> 
> > "In persona" is the latin genitive (possessive) case meaning "of the
> > person".
> 
> It isn't.  "Persona" is nominative, not genitive, and neither nominative
> nor genitive can follow the preposition "in".
> 
> > Rarely do judges hold people in contempt for improper use of latin
> > gender or case.
> 
> Luckily for me, I'm not a judge.
> 
> > Perhaps you should be less rash in your judgements.
> 
> Perhaps you should be less rash in your assertions.
> 
> > In the nineteen sixties physics majors were required to take two
> > foreign languages.  My were German and Latin. Since then I have
> > gracefully forgotten all but the rudimentary basics. That era was
> > before many of the posters to this list were born.
> 
> "Ignorance of [grammar] excuseth no man, for it is an excuse that
> every man will plead, and no man know how to refute."
> 
> Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar is available on the Web, as well
> as lots of lists of Latin phrases.
> 
> --
> A: "Spiro conjectures Ex-Lax."                  John Cowan
> Q: "What does Pat Nixon frost her cakes with?"  jcowan at reutershealth.com
>  --"Jeopardy" for generative semanticists      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
>