The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 6: Mens Rea
Page 11: Guilty Mind
Average Joe wearing a scholar’s cap and gown, holding a pointer, next to a chalkboard. On the chalkboard:
MENS (n) Feminine singular nominative “mind”
REA (adj) Feminine positive singular nominative of REUS “accused”
AVERAGE JOE
“Mens rea” translates loosely as “guilty mind,” or perhaps “accused mind.”
This is amazing.
as a amateur latin scholar, i believe that rea is accusative case rather than nominative.
I’m pretty sure the accusative form would be ream. Unless it’s not a 2-1-2, but it looks like it is. Also the adjective is supposed to share case with the noun it modifies, so if it were accusative mens would need to be… mentem, I think.
Indeed, mens is nominative: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mens#Declension
And rea is also nominative, which of course it must be to agree with mens: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reus#Inflection