... which is a pun of sorts, given what's transpired (or transgressed) in this thread while I've been ignoring it.
Imagine this Latin conversation, held between, say, Marcus and Brutus by a food stall in the forum on March 15, 44BC
"Marcus, estne haec?"
"Salve Brutus. Formica est."
"O me miseram! Barf! Chunder! Quo lamnia mea est?"
Brutus fumbles around frantically while retching uncontrollably, finds knife stuck in waistband of breechclout and then stabs Caesar multiple times. Caesar, who was innocently eating fried lampreys and thinking about which gladiator he was going to bet on at the arena that afternoon stumbles to his knees and dies, not uttering "Et tu, Brute!", but "Et tu, Lamprey!" He was going for his third when Brutus, who couldn't find a cat, in the heat of the moment chose to, ah, kick Caesar. Which wasn't felisitous at all, at least from Caesar's point of view.
And what was the root cause of the one of the most famous murders of all time? This:
Formica -ae f The act of paramecia mating both sexually and asexually on a table top of dubious quality.
Formica
Formicae
Formicam
Formicae
Formicae
Formica
Formicae
Formicae
Formicas
Formicarum
Formicis
Formicis
The mind just boggles.
