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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Nimius, Nimio... == excessive, too great, too much
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2024 09:10:04 +1300
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On 23/10/2024 8:20 a.m., Bebercito wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Oct 2024 18:11:04 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote:
> 
>> Bebercito wrote:
>>> On Tue, 22 Oct 2024 11:10:16 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote:
>>>
>>>> HenHanna wrote:
>>>>> On Mon, 21 Oct 2024 22:32:14 +0000, HenHanna wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Nimius,  Nimio... == excessive, too great, too much
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Antonyms: parcus, modicus, paucus, perpaucus
>>>>>>
>>>>>>         Ex nimiā suī opīniōne ――――― Having too good a conceit of
>>>>>> himself.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/numinous
>>>>>>             is (etym.) unrelated, but sort of related in ....
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> re:    Ex nimiā suī opīniōne
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>      EX=======  "due to" or "as a result of"
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>   i'm having trouble  understanding that...
>>>>> the phrase (clause?)  doesn't work without the EX.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>      [nimiā suī opīniōne]  is NOT a  unit???
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> So different from English,  in this respect???
>>>>
>>>> It DOES work without the EX. But the difference is so subtle, that I
>>>> won't even dream of leading others into that semantic pit.
>>>
>>> The "ex" means "beyond" here - literally the Latin phrase means "an
>>> opinion of himself/herself that's beyond excessive". Therefore,
>>> "nimiā suī opīniōne" needs an "ex" before it to justify the macron
>>> ("-ā") in "nimiā" that denotes the ablative. OTOH, "nimia suī
>>> opīniōne", where "nimia" is nominative (no macron), would arguably
>>> be possible.
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Ed
>>
>>
>> No. The "ex" is simply causal, as in "ex vulnere aeger" or "ex
>> humilitate" or "qua ex causa?".
>>
>> If you wanted to say "due to a self-opinion beyond excessive" I'd write
>> something like "ex opinione sui immodice nimia".
> 
> Indeed, but where's the causality (accounting for "ex") in a
> phrase that just means "Having too good a conceit of himself"?
> 
> 
>>
>> Ed

That is not a good translation of the phrase by itself.  "From (or 
because of, or owing to) a too-great opinion of himself" would be more 
accurate.

However, in a context such as "Having too good a conceit of himself, he 
acted unwisely." the participial phrase would be understood as 
indicating a cause.

If you remove the preposition EX from the Latin, you are left with a 
noun phrase, in the ablative case. I believe this could function as an 
absolute, meaning roughly "his opinion of himself being too great"
which is not too far from the meaning with EX. Perhaps this is what Ed 
is talking about.