Rewarding the best answers of 2020

Question

The voting period has ended. Thanks for everyone taking part, and congratulations to cnread, Sebastian Koppehel, TKR, Cairnarvon and Alex B! (The bounties will be distributed shortly. As the fourth place is tied, we are giving out 100 points to the top three and 50 for the two other answers, splitting the fourth price.)

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What were the best answers of the year 2020? Nominate your favorites and vote on other people's suggestions! To nominate an answer, simply post it an answer to this question with a link and brief description of the answer. You can nominate as many answers as you want.

The nominated answers must have been originally posted in 2020. To get you started, here is a search for all answers from this period with positive score. The answer doesn't have to be accepted, and it doesn't matter if it has already received a bounty.

Everyone is invited to nominate and vote! After about a month (July 10 or 11, but we make no promise about the exact time), the four nominations with the highest scores on this meta post will be declared the winners. Now that we have four moderators, we've decided to reward an additional answer!

The four winning answers will be rewarded with bounties of 100 reputation points each, from the personal reputation stashes of the moderators. (If the scores are tied, we will reward at least four answers and give out at least 400 reputation in some way.)

Of course, anyone with 75 or more reputation is free to reward any answer they like at any time. Consider this contest also as an opportunity to highlight some hidden gems that received few votes but are excellent in quality.

Previous similar events: Best of 2016, Best of first quarter of 2017, Best of second quarter of 2017, Best of second half of 2017, Best of 2018, Best of 2019. These events were recently discussed on meta.

Answer 1

I liked cnread's answer on introducing subordinate clauses with a gerund or a supine. It's the kind of syntactical question that is rarely addressed in a Latin grammar, and the answer is very clear and definitive with good examples.

Answer 2

I liked Sebastian Koppehel's answer on distinguishing "house" from "home". It studies the meanings of words in the context of Roman culture, and ends up with suggestions one might not expect from the point of view of English.

Answer 3

I also nominate TKR's explanation of Greek labiovelars in different dialects. I found it very clear and informative, and the speculative sequence of changes is something I haven't seen explained anywhere else.

Answer 4

I nominate Alex B's explanation of Aeolic -μμι forms. A wide variety of sources, including a photograph of the actual papyrus where one of these forms is found, provides a very clear and thorough picture of how these forms are used and why the spelling sometimes differs.

Answer 5

I would like to nominate Cairnarvon’s answer to the origin of the long vowel of sāl. He provided numerous etymological references, making it not only a very enlightening answer, but also an answer which demonstrates what kind of community we have here at Latin SE: one that is helpful and welcoming, even when the questioner got it the wrong way round.

Answer 6

I would also like to nominate Ily’s thorough explanation of the etymology for mentula. It is thoroughly studied, provides a deep explanation of how it can be understood, and very insightful.

Edit: Unfortunately, I didn’t check its dating: As Ily pointed out in his comment, this question was indeed posted in 2018, so it is not eligible for an award this time around. Still, go an read it; it is an interesting read and well-deserving of lots of upvotes.