In "Latin for People" Alexander Humez shows how the Latin word taetrum (meaning horrible or foul) can be used in several ways. Like in "Bona, mala, et taetra" it is used to mean "The good, the bad and the horrible". In "O filii et filiae Galliae, mala Britanniae taetra" it can mean foul, "O sons and daughters of Gaul, the apples of Britain are foul". Or in "Bellum in Gallia malum, sed in metela taetrum" it can be used a makeshift superlative for malum or bad, "A war in Gaul is bad, but a war in a chamber pot is horrible" (i.e., the worst).
Also (in Latin for People by Alexander and Nicholas Humez) they show how to use the Latin word triquetrus (meaning three-cornered). It can be used several ways. In "Unus bonus, alter malus, sed neuter triquetrus" it refers to objects: "One is good, the other bad. But neither is three-cornered." In "Gallia non insula triquetra" is used for geography, "Gaul is not a three-cornered island." While in "Mundus adulteri triquetrus" it's used more abstractly: "The adulterer's world is three-cornered."
