DavidWalker at 10:07, 24 February 2018

2018-02-24T10:07:49Z

DavidWalker: Created page with "The word '''supine''' may be either an adjective or a noun. As an adjective, '''supine''' is used: :to describe a person’s physical position: it means ‘lying..."

2018-02-24T10:06:12Z

Created page with "The word '''supine''' may be either an adjective or a noun. As an adjective, '''supine''' is used: :to describe a person’s physical position: it means ‘lying..."

New page

The word '''supine''' may be either an [[adjective]] or a [[noun]].

As an [[adjective]], '''supine''' is used:
:to describe a person’s physical position: it means ‘lying on one’s back, face upwards’. The opposite of '''supine''' in this sense is '''prone''', i.e., ‘lying on one’s front, face downwards’. (The [[adjective]] '''prone''' also has other meanings, viz., ‘sloping downwards’ and ‘having an inclination or tendency to do something’).
:to describe a person’s attitude or frame of mind: it means ‘inactive, lacking interest or energy’. A person who takes no action to deal with a situation which requires his attention may be criticised for his '''supine''' attitude.

As a [[noun]], '''supine''' is used in the study of [[grammar]] as the name of a type of [[verbal]] [[noun]], i.e., a word which is formed from a [[verb]] but has (some of) the [[grammar|grammatical]] properties of a [[noun]].
:Readers of AWE are most likely to meet with the word '''supine''' in the context of the [[Latin]] language, the '''supine''' being one of the four [[principal parts of the Latin verb]], i.e., the parts of the [[verb]] one needs to know in order to [[conjugate]] the [[verb]] and derive all its [[inflection]]al forms. However, the '''supine''' is also found in a number of modern European languages, such as Swedish, Rumanian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Slovenian; and in English [[grammar]] the word has sometimes been applied - though it rarely is nowadays - to the full form of the [[infinitive]], i.e., the form with ‘to’, when this is used as if it were a [[noun]], as in ‘To win would be a dream come true’, ‘To respect the law is the duty of every citizen’, and ‘If all the year were playing holidays,/To sport would be as tedious as to work’ ([[Shakespeare]], ''Henry IV Part I'', Act I, Scene 2, lines 226-227).

[[Etymology|'''''Etymological'' ''note''''']]:: The English [[adjective]] '''supine''' comes from the Latin ''supinus'', ‘bent backwards’, ‘thrown backwards’, ‘on the back’ and, figuratively, ‘inactive, indolent’. The [[noun]] '''supine''', used in grammatical contexts, was ''verbum supinum'' (i.e., ‘supine word’) in [[Latin]], though why this expression was used is obscure.

For more about the supine as a [[verbal]] [[noun]] see [[Principal parts of the Latin verb]].

[[Category:Clarification of meanings]][[Category:Etymology]][[Category:Grammar]][[Category:Latin]]

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 As an [[adjective]], '''supine''' is used:
-:to describe a person’s physical position: it means ‘lying on one’s back, face upwards’. The opposite of '''supine''' in this sense is '''prone''', i.e., ‘lying on one’s front, face downwards’. (The [[adjective]] '''prone''' also has other meanings, viz., ‘sloping downwards’ and ‘having an inclination or tendency to do something’).
+:to describe a person’s physical position: it means ‘lying on one’s back, face upwards’. The opposite of '''supine''' in this sense is '''prone''', i.e., ‘lying on one’s front, face downwards’. (The [[adjective]] '''prone''' also has other meanings, viz., ‘sloping downwards’ and ‘having an inclination or tendency (to do something)’).
 :to describe a person’s attitude or frame of mind: it means ‘inactive, lacking interest  or energy’. A person who takes no action to deal with a situation which requires his attention may be criticised for his '''supine''' attitude.

Supine - Revision history

DavidWalker at 10:07, 24 February 2018

DavidWalker: Created page with "The word '''supine''' may be either an adjective or a noun. As an adjective, '''supine''' is used: :to describe a person’s physical position: it means ‘lying..."