“[...] Pallāsne exūrere classem Argīvum atque ipsōspotuit submergere pontō, ūnīus ob noxam et furiās Aiācis Oīlēī?”
“Was not Pallasable to burn the Argive fleet and to drown [the men] themselves in the sea – [all] because of the crime and fury of [just] one man, Ajax, [son] of Oileus?” (Pallas orAthena meted divine retribution after the fall of Troy; there theArgive/Greek invaders had desecrated Athena’s temple, in whichAjax the Lesser assaultedCassandra.)
tū tamen ī prō mē, tū, cui licet, aspice Rōmam, dī facerent,possem nunc meus esse līber!
Nevertheless, you go instead of me – you, to whom it is allowed, behold [the city of] Rome – Gods! [If only you] would grant [it], [that] nowI would be able to be my book! (The exiled poet addresses his book as if it were a living emissary that he will send to Rome in his place. The optative subjunctive “facerent” expresses a wish, followed by the jussive subjunctive “possem” stating what the writer believes should be done.)
This verb is irregular, but synchronously resemblessum prefixed withpot-. Several contractions and simplifications occur, however, namely:-ts- →-ss-,-tf- →-t-,-tess- →-ss- (note thatpotēns does not originate from non-existent*fēns).
However, while this analysis works synchronically, diachronically, this relationship does not reflect a cognate historical relationship in all cases. For example, Osco-Umbrian forms confirm that a Proto-Italic verbProto-Italic*poteō(“to be master”) (stem*pot-ē-) must also be reconstructed that, although lost in Latin otherwise, appears to have been the ultimate historical source ofpotuī andpotēns.[1]
In Late Latin, the first person singular is changed topossō (causing the verb to be treated like a third conjugation verb (stemposs-) in the present subjunctive (*possam,*possās)), the third person plural (eī /eae /ea)possunt was preserved as such, and the rest of the verb became the second conjugation verbpotēre ((tu)*potēs, (is /ea /id)*potet, (nōs)*potēmus and (vōs)*potētis), based on forms likepotuī andpotēns, just likevelle (infinitive ofvolō) was reformed to*volēre after forms likevoluī andvolēns.
^De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “potis, pote”, inEtymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill,→ISBN,page484f.
“possum”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“possum”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894),Latin Phrase-Book[1], London:Macmillan and Co.
to give a man the opportunity of doing a thing:facultatem alicui dare alicuius rei orut possit...
I cannot make myself believe that..:non possum adduci, ut (credam)
I cannot bring myself to..:a me impetrare non possum, ut
he is a young man of great promise:adulescens alios bene de se sperare iubet, bonam spem ostendit oralii de adulescente bene sperare possunt
I have exhausted all my material:copiam quam potui persecutus sum
movable, personal property:res, quae moveri possunt; res moventes (Liv. 5. 25. 6)
to isolate a witness:aliquem a ceteris separare et in arcam conicere ne quis cum eo colloqui possit (Mil. 22. 60)
men of military age:qui arma ferre possunt oriuventus
men exempt from service owing to age:qui per aetatem arma ferre non possunt oraetate ad bellum inutiles
by the longest possible forced marches:quam maximis itineribus (potest)
this can be said of..., applies to..:hoc dici potest de aliqua re
this can be said of..., applies to..:hoc transferri potest in aliquid
I cannot find words for..:dici vix (non) potest orvix potest dici (vix likenon always beforepotest)
without wishing to boast, yet..:quod vere praedicare possum
that is self-evident, goes without saying:hoc facile intellegi potest
from this it appears, is apparent:ex quo intellegitur orintellegi potest, debet
(ambiguous) to be scarcely able to restrain one's laughter:risum tenere vix posse
(ambiguous) to be scarcely able to restrain one's laughter:risum aegre continere posse
(ambiguous) to be hardly able to restrain one's tears:lacrimas tenere non posse
(ambiguous) to be hardly able to restrain one's tears:fletum cohibere non posse
(ambiguous) to be unable to speak for emotion:prae lacrimis loqui non posse
(ambiguous) to be unable to sleep:somnum capere non posse
(ambiguous) to have great influence with a person; to have considerable weight:multum auctoritate valere, posse apud aliquem
(ambiguous) to have great weight as a speaker:multum dicendo valere, posse
(ambiguous) to be unable to say all one wants:verbis non omnia exsequi posse
(ambiguous) to have a powerful navy:navibus plurimum posse
possum inRamminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)),Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
possum, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese),University of Chicago, since 2011
possum on Wikipedia.Wikipedia