binus

== Latin == === Etymology === From Proto-Italic *dwiznos, equivalent to bis (“twice”) +‎ -nus (distributive numeral-forming suffix). === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈbiː.nʊs] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈbiː.nus] === Numeral === bīnus (feminine bīna, neuter bīnum); first/second-declension numeral (in the plural) two each (chiefly plural) in pairs occurring twice, twofold, double, binary ==== Usage notes ==== Cicero notes that bīnī was phonetically similar to the obscene Ancient Greek word βῑνεῖ (bīneî, “fucks”, 3rd person singular present active indicative). This is part of the Latin series of distributive numerals. These numerals are inflected as first/second-declension adjectives; in Classical Latin, they typically accompany plural nouns (with which they agree in case and gender) and have the following functions: to express the sense “[numeral] [noun]s each/apiece”, as in hominis digiti ternos articulos habent, “a man’s fingers have three joints each” (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 11.244.3). to express multiplication after a numeral adverb, as in Gallinaciis enim pullis bis deni dies opus sunt, pavoninis ter noveni "hens' [eggs] need twice ten days, peahens' thrice nine" (Marcus Terentius Varro, Res Rusticae 3.9.10) to express the sense of cardinal numerals when used with pluralia tantum (plural-only nouns) such as castra "camp": for example, "twelve camps" is expressed by duodēna castra (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7.105.5). Distributive forms are regularly used in this context for the number 2 and for all numbers greater than 4. For 1, plural-only nouns are used with plural inflected forms of the cardinal ūnus (“one”), as in ūnae scālae "one flight of stairs" (rather than with forms of the distributive numeral singulus). For 3 and 4, plural-only nouns are used with the plural inflected forms of trīnus and quadrīnus, as in trīna castra "three camps" (rather than with forms of ternus and quaternus, which tend to be used in distributive function). These adjectives do not normally occur in the singular. However, some singular forms are attested in Classical Latin poetry, possibly motivated by metrical considerations (e.g. corpore bīnō "twofold body" in Lucretius De Rerum Natura 5.879, and bīnus ... honor "double/twofold honor" in Ovid Epistulae ex Ponto 4.9.64). Singular forms are also attested in postclassical Latin, where these adjectives sometimes have non-distributive meanings (taking an ordinal, cardinal, or collective sense instead). These alternative senses are sometimes continued by Romance descendants (e.g. Spanish noveno (“ninth”) from Latin novēnus). The genitive plural of singulus is usually singulōrum/singulārum, but distributive numerals greater than one commonly use short genitive plural forms ending in -um rather than the longer forms ending in -ōrum and -ārum. ==== Declension ==== First/second-declension adjective (distributive, normally plural-only; short genitive plurals in -num preferred). ==== Derived terms ==== bīnārius binō (Medieval Latin) combīnō === See also === “binus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “binus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎[1], London: Macmillan and Co. William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “binary”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC. === References ===