16,200. HERE'S THE VERTICAL OMFOSQUIE

HERE'S THE VERTICAL OMFOSQUIE

It's French, the word for where the cellar

meets the entryway. Usually meant, back

then, for colliers and kitchen staff. Servants

too, but no one talks of that any longer.

Maria cum servant ambulat. That's from

my first Latin primer, in 1963. Maria walks

with the servant. It just 'the'  -  no mention

if the servant was hers or nor.

-

I never grasped the point of that first Latin

textbook, and I still have it, the entire set, and

the Punic Wars and all that crazy stuff we used

to have to read. I only know Latin now for its

references. Those crazy legal terms that always 

need translation, like habeus corpus, and 

nolo contendere too. Of course, there's 

always the colloquial 'cum'   -  which once 

meant 'with' but now

means 'come.'