Latin minimal pairs distinguished only by vowel length

[Pacifica]

I thought the anus pair was bound to have been done before, as it's one of the most famous (what with people's childish sense of humor ).

 

[Glabrigausapes]

I thought the anus pair was bound to have been done before, as it's one of the most famous (what with people's childish sense of humor ).

Oh yeah? Well, beat this:

pénis : pénís (EL poena)

 

[Tlepolemus]

The following words were already mentioned above, but I like this explanation from the Popma's dictionary:

 

[Serenus]

Okay, now a truly obscure one:

cōram 'in front of'
coram, accusative of cora 'eye pupil', a borrowing of Greek κόρη attested once in a poem of Ausonius

 

[Serenus]

vomere, infinitive of vomō 'to vomit', also a passive = vomeris 'you're vomited'
vomēre, future passive = vomēris 'you will be vomited'
vōmere, ablative singular of vōmer vōmeris 'ploughshare', also a word for 'penis'

And so also:
vomerem, imperfect subjunctive 'I would vomit'
vōmerem, accusative singular of vōmer

Worth mentioning also vomerēs 'you would vomit' (imperfect subjunctive) vs. the nominative/accusative plural vōmerēs 'ploughshares'.

 

[Serenus]

• retina - a rein to drive horses with. Attested in early medieval Latin, derived from retineō retinēre. The Romance descendants (Spanish rienda, Italian rèdine) show the word was stressed on re-, and that the vowel quality was (the descendant sound of) Classical (and Late) /ɛ/.
• rētīna - feminine of rētīnus, 'in the shape of a net'. Attested in medieval Latin proper, particularly when talking about the "tunica rētīna" of veins and arteries that is found around the eye, i.e. the retina. I'm simply following the normal composition of a stem (rēte) and a suffix (-īnus) for the macrons here.

 

[Tlepolemus]

A handbook of Latin homonyms (Hussey, 1905)

 

[Michael Zwingli]

A handbook of Latin homonyms (Hussey, 1905)

Superb! @Tlepolemus, what are you doing to me? Yet another book that I must have, and the old bookcase already full...

 

[Serenus]

Not a minimal pair, but still interesting, because it involves two relatively common words:

miserē, adverbial form of miser 'miserable, pitiful'
miserē, singular imperative of misereō (if we can conceive such a usage...)
mīsēre, 3PL perfect of mittō mittere mīsī missum

 

[Iáson]

vitium, vitiī (=malum)
vītium < vītis, -is (=ūvārum stirps)

 

[Tlepolemus]

(by @havao666)

pŏpŭlus — people
pōpŭlus — poplar tree

 

[Pacifica]

This one hasn't been mentioned yet, apparently:

Velīs—second person singular present subjunctive of volō.
Vēlīs—dat./abl. pl. of vēlum.

 

[Serenus]

cācabō 'with a cooking pot'
cacābō 'I shall shit'

 

[Serenus]

placet, from placēre 'to please'
plācet, from plācāre 'to placate'

This tripped me up in a line of Lucretius containing Veneremque suādent ut plācent...

 

[Serenus]

lustrum 'a bog; (in the plural) a den of wild beasts; (in the plural) a brothel or place of (not-necessarily sexual) debauchery'
lūstrum 'a sacrifice of purification celebrated every few years; a period of five or four years'

 

[Pacifica]

lustrum 'a bog; (in the plural) a den of wild beasts; (in the plural) a brothel or place of (not-necessarily sexual) debauchery'
lūstrum 'a sacrifice of purification celebrated every few years; a period of five or four years'

Interesting; I didn't know the first one. How do we know that the second has a long u?

 

[Serenus]

How do we know that the second has a long u?

Probably only through the IE etymology. Wiktionary lists three possible PIE roots (*lewk- related to lūceō, *lewh₃- related to lavō, *lewH- related to luō), but regardless, that -ew- would become Proto-Italic and Old Latin -ou- and Classical long ū.

I don't know why it should be (full-grade) *léwk-s-trom instead of (zero-grade) *luk-s-tróm, the latter of which could give *lŭstrum, but I'm no Indo-Europeanist...

 

[Iáson]

apud de Vaan est nōnnihil dubium dē etymologiā.

 

[Serenus]

penitus - deeply internally, deeply inside
pēnītus - having a pēnis, that is, a tail

Both have an entry in the L&S.

 

[Laurentius]

It seems you were trying to word it as lewdly as possible.