pons asinorum
pons asinorum "Brücke-Esel", Eselsbrücke
Literally “bridge of donkeys”, attributed to Jean Buridan (14th century) but first attested in Petrus Tartaretus (d. 1522), who cites it as a common appellation for the device in syllogistic reasoning “because of its apparent difficulty”, i.e. it separates experts from “donkeys”. The application to Euclid appears to postdate its use in logic.
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈpõːs a.sɪˈnoː.rũː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈpɔns a.s̬iˈnɔː.rum]
pōns asinōrum m (genitive pontis asinōrum); third declension(Medieval Latin, New Latin)
- (logic) a method for finding the middle term in an Aristotelian syllogism, or a diagrammatic representation of this method
- (geometry) the geometric theorem (Euclid's fifth) that the two angles opposite the equal sides of an isosceles triangle are also equal
- (generally) a difficult early test that must be passed if further progress is to be made
Third-declension noun (i-stem) with an indeclinable portion.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | pōns asinōrum | pontēs asinōrum |
| genitive | pontis asinōrum | pontium asinōrum |
| dative | pontī asinōrum | pontibus asinōrum |
| accusative | pontem asinōrum | pontēs asinōrum
pontīs asinōrum |
| ablative | ponte asinōrum | pontibus asinōrum |
| vocative | pōns asinōrum | pontēs asinōrum |