UNDERSTAND Copy link • UNDERSTANDTo take in, to comprehend, accipere (to take in, grasp with the mind): intelligere (the proper word; anything, aliquid; and also intelligere aliquem, to appreciate anybody’s character, motives, or method of acting; opposed to aliquem ignorare; e.g., parum Socrates ab hominibus sui temporis intelligebatur, was not understood by): comprehendere, amplecti, or complecti, with or without mente (to comprehend, form a notion of): percipere (to perceive). To understand imperfectly, aliquid parum accipere or minus intelligere: to understand thoroughly, penitus intelligere aliquid: to understand a writer, scriptorem intelligere: scriptoris cogitationem assequi et voluntatem interpretari: he who fixes his attention on a writer’s own statements, understands him far better than he who, etc., multo propius ad scriptoris voluntatem accedit, qui ex ipsius eam litteris interpretatur, quam ille, qui, etc.: as far as I understand, quantum ego video or intelligo: do you understand what he says? num intelligis, quod hic narret? I understand, teneo: intelligo: dictum puta: I do not understand you, nescio quid velis: what am I to understand by this? quid hoc sibi vult? quorsum hoc dicis? to give to understand, alicui aliquid significare: to understand by (i. e., to attach such or such a notion to), intelligere, with a double accusative; e.g., quem intelligimus divitem (Cic.), whom we understand by a rich man; quid hoc loco honestum intelligit (Cic.)? what do we understand by moral good? or, intelligi velle, with a double accusative; or dicere, with a double accusative; ☞ not intelligere aliquid sub aliqua re, or per aliquid, which modern writers have sometimes employed in this sense. What are we to understand by this word? sub hac voce quae subjicienda est sententia? quae res subjicienda est huic nomini? to understand by (i. e., to mean, to intend), dicere: significare (with a double accusative; e.g., eum enim significari murum ligneum, Nep.); ☞ not intelligere. To have a knowledge of, to be skilled or versed in, aliquid intelligere (to have a clear insight into or acquaintance with; e.g., multas linguas): scire aliquid, or with an infinitive (to have a clear distinct knowledge of anything): instructum esse aliqua re or ab aliqua re: doctum or eruditum esse aliqua re: alicujus rei non ignarum esse: peritum esse alicujus rei: not to understand, aliquid nescire or ignorare: alicujus rei ignarum esse: to understand Latin, Latine scire: doctum esse Latinis litteris: Latinae linguae peritum esse: to understand Greek as well as Latin, parem esse in Graecae et Latinae linguae facultate: nec minus Graece quam Latine doctum esse. To supply in thought (opposed to express), intelligere: simul audire (of a reader; cum subtractum verbum aliquod satis ex ceteris intelligitur, ut caelius in Antonium “stupere gaudio Graecus,” simul enim auditur “coepit” = coepit is understood, Quint.): intelligi, or audiri velle (of a writer; hoc nomine donarunt ea, quae non dicunt, verum intelligi volunt, Quint.) ☞ in this sense, subaudire and subintelligere are not classical; supplere is not Latin.