fruuntur

Fruuntur is the third-person plural present indicative form of the Latin deponent verb fruor, meaning to enjoy, take pleasure in, or profit from. As a deponent verb, fruor has passive morphology but active meaning. Its principal parts are fruor, frui, fructus sum. It belongs to the third conjugation of deponent verbs and uses the standard deponent endings, producing forms such as fruuntur for “they enjoy.”

In use, the thing that is enjoyed is typically in the ablative case. For example, libertate fruuntur means “they enjoy liberty,” and honore fruuntur means “they enjoy honor.” The construction commonly appears with phrases built on the ablative to express possession or privilege that is being enjoyed, rather than with a direct object in the accusative.

The primary sense of fruor and its forms is to enjoy or to reap benefit from something. Beyond simple enjoyment, the verb can convey taking pleasure in a condition, privilege, or resource, or benefiting from a situation or status. It is found in classical Latin literature, as well as later Latin, often in legal, ethical, or narrative contexts.

Notes: because fruor is deponent, its forms look passive but carry active meaning. The related noun frūctus (fruit, benefit) is the semantic root of the verb, reflecting the sense of enjoying the fruit or benefit of something. In translation, fruuntur is rendered as “they enjoy” or “they benefit from,” with the accompanying ablative indicating what is being enjoyed.