# Incumbent



## Brimstone

Hello there:

Do you happen to know what the meaning of incumbent is? 

Thanks.


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## P2Grafn0l

It is the third person plural future active indicative, and it can mean: They will lean.

_Milites super manum ducis incumbent. = _The soldiers will lean upon the hand of the leader. (Meaning: They want to have/need to have support from their leader.)
_Milites super hastas suas incumbent._ = The soldiers will lean on their spears. (Meaning: They will die such a fate.)


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## Scholiast

salvete amici!

With reference to P2Grafn01's # 2, the _Thesaurus Linguae Latinae_ gives no instance of _incumbere + the _preposition_ super_, though it occurs sometimes with _in._ Overwhelmingly, however, whether in prose or verse, the person or object that is leant on appears in the dative case, thus e.g.:
_ut incumbat...*iudici* oratio _(Cic. _de Orat._ 2.324)
_incubuit...*populo* morbus_ (Lucr. 6.1143)
_incumbens *tereti*...olivae_ (Virg. _Ecl._ 8.16)
[_milites_] _incumbentes *scutis* _(Liv. 44.36.5)
_*cancellis*...incumbebat_ (Amm. Marc. 21.6.3)

Σ


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## P2Grafn0l

Salve Scholiast, 

Even though I don't disagree with you, I have seen such an instance or two in _II Regum 7:2 _and_ II Samuelis 1:6_.


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## Scholiast

Greetings again


P2Grafn0l said:


> I have seen such an instance or two in _II Regum 7:2 _and_ II Samuelis 1:6_.


There is another instance in the (Apocryphal) I Macc. 6.57. The Vulgate does not quite count, however, because Jerome was at pains to translate the Septuagint literally, as nearly word for word, as possible. In both the passages P2Grafn01 cites, the Greek verbs (which are different, but both compounded with the prepositional prefix ἐπ[ί]), and both have to be used, despite the apparent pleonasm, with prepositional complements (at II _Kings_ 7:2 the text is *ἐπ*ανεπαύετο *ἐπὶ* τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ; II _Sam._ 1:6 has *ἐπ*εστήρικτο *ἐπὶ* τὸ δόρυ αὐτοῦ). And besides, by Jerome's time, in vulgar Latin _super _had already become a frequently correct translation of ἐπί, i.e. it was well on its way to becoming Ital. _su_ and French _sur._
Σ


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## Snodv

...and Spanish _sobre, _with the meaning shifting from "above" to "on top of" to just "on" with its various meanings.


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## Brimstone

Thank you so much to everyone! I have gotten the meaning of it thanks to you all.


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## P2Grafn0l

Scholiast said:


> (at II _Kings_ 7:2 the text is *ἐπ*ανεπαύετο *ἐπὶ* τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ; II _Sam._ 1:6 has *ἐπ*εστήρικτο *ἐπὶ* τὸ δόρυ αὐτοῦ).



Honestly, I do not know any Greek, so for now, I refrain from defending the construction I had made before your posts in this thread, Scholiast.


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