Translation
article, clause; joint; moment, point of time
Examples
.
We read the first clause of the law.
firma .
In this clause the peace is secure.
.
We hold all the articles of the faith.
.
They spoke at length about the terms of the peace.
.
He received the sacrament at the point of death.
Articulus, articuli, m., second declension. It is the diminutive of artus, "joint", so a small joint: a finger, a knuckle, and from there any small jointed division of a larger thing. That is the route by which it becomes a clause of a treaty, a heading of a creed, a paragraph of a law.
Two things to keep straight. It is a false friend: in classical Latin it never means a piece of journalism, and it is not the grammatical article, since Latin has no articles at all. And the temporal sense survives in the fixed phrase in articulo mortis, "at the very point of death", where the joint has become a hinge in time. Medieval legal and theological Latin uses the word constantly, which is where English article comes from.
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articulus: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Latin word "articulus" (article, clause; joint; moment, point of time): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 6.