How can this English adjective (as opposed to the same word as a verbal present participle or as a noun) be rendered in Latin, for example in the sentence: "The swiftness with which Sister Agnes' ruler could rap upon my knuckles provided me a focusing motivation to maintain proper penmanship." (an autobiographical example, bless her heart...I still have the best penmanship of any man that I know) I cannot seem to find a Latin term which describes this meaning.
"focusing" (adjectival sense)
- Thread starter Michael Zwingli
- Start date
singularis?
I didn't think of that, but now that you mention it I don't think so... don't think that the semantics agree. "Singularis" means "unique", or "singular", if you will. This seems to describe an inherent characteristic of the thing qualified, which at once ignores the effect that said characteristic has upon a subject. The characteristic of being "focusing", however, seems to be all about the effect that is made upon a subject (as one would expect from an adjective which was born as a participle, it's all about the action and the effect), which subject is the thing being "focused". Can you see what I mean? Of course, I am thinking of the verb "to focus" here as meaning "to concentrate the attention (of one)".
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focusing motivation
incitamentum instanter dirigens
incitamentum instanter dirigens
Upon a bit of digging, I note that there are several participles which might render this meaning: advertens, attendens, and intendens; there seems, however, to be no true adjective for this. I also note that the adjective avius can mean "distracting", but there frustratingly seems not to exist a corresponding advius (much as the verb adverto corresponds to averto) to render the contrasting meaning, which would be just what I am looking for. This is a bit odd to me, since Classical Latin had avius ("distracting"), obvius ("encountering", "meeting"), and devius ("erroneous", "inconsistent")...why are we so noticeably without advius for "focusing"?
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Haha, yes...but a mouthful of words!