gate_; and in the Plural, _gates_ or _the gates_.

Peculiarities of Nouns of the First Declension.

21. 1. EXCEPTIONS IN GENDER. Nouns denoting males are Masculine; as, nauta,
_sailor_; agricola, _farmer_; also, Hadria, _Adriatic Sea_.

2. Rare Case-Endings,--

a) An old form of the Genitive Singular in -ās is preserved in the
combination pater familiās, _father of a family_; also in māter familiās,
fīlius familiās, fīlia familiās. But the regular form of the Genitive in
-ae is also admissible in these expressions; as, pater familiae.

b) In poetry a Genitive in -āī also occurs; as, aulāī.

c) The Locative Singular ends in -ae; as, Rōmae, _at Rome_.

d) A Genitive Plural in -um instead of -ārum sometimes occurs; as,
Dardanidum instead of Dardanidārum. This termination -um is not a
contraction of -ārum, but represents an entirely different case-ending.

e) Instead of the regular ending -īs, we usually find -ābus in the Dative
and Ablative Plural of dea, _goddess_, and fīlia, _daughter_, especially
when it is important to distinguish these nouns from the corresponding
forms of deus, _god_, and fīlius, _son_. A few other words sometimes have
the same peculiarity; as, lībertābus (from līberta, _freedwoman_),
equābus (_mares_), to avoid confusion with lībertīs (from lībertus,
_freedman_) and equīs (from equus, _horse_).