W. M. Lindsay, Syntax of Plautus

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Just as an Adjective may play the part of a Noun, e.g. boni ‘good men,’ bonum ‘a good thing’ (cf. proxumum ‘next door,’ e.g. Asin. 54; Rud. 767 “quin inhumanum exuras tibi” ‘cauterize your inhumanity’), so a Noun occasionally plays the part of an Adjective. Instances from Plautine Latin are

• turbo ventus ‘whirlwind,’
• lapis silex ‘flintstone,’
Philĭppus nummus (but “Philĭppeus” Poen. 714; cf. Poen. 781),
• Most. 1049 “ut senatum congerronem (-num, B2) convocem”,
• Poen. 543 “obsecro hercle, operam celocem hanc mihi, ne corbitam date” ‘express-boat service, not lugger service.’

Of the equivalence of an Adjective to the Genitive Case of a Noun the common phrase erilis filius ‘our young master’ may serve as example.

An Adjective plays the part of an Adverb in lines like Men. 154 “dies quidem iam ad umbilicum est dimidiatus mortuus”. Besides invitus (e.g. Mil. 449 “vi atque invitam ingratiis … rapiam te domum”, Aul. 106 “invitus abeo”), we often find totus, miser, divorsus, citus used Adverbially, e.g.

• Aul. 410 “totus doleo atque oppido perii”,
• Bacch. 208 “misera amans desiderat”,
Poen. 368 “discrucior miser” (misere is Terentian but hardly Plautine in such phrases; Sjögren ‘de part. cop’., p. 60 cites Aul. 14, 315),
• Rud. 1252 “sed quom inde suam quisque ibant divorsi domum”,
• Truc. 787 “divorsae state” ‘stand apart,’
• Amph. 1115 “citus e cunis exilit”,
• etc.

Adjective and Adverb are often found side by side, e.g.

Capt. 960 “recte et vera loquere” (cf. Ter. Adelph. 609),
• Trin. 268 “sunt tamen quos miseros maleque habeas”,
• Bacch. 474 “tu Pistoclerum falso atque insontem arguis.”

(For other examples see Sjögren ‘de part. copulat.’, p. 58.)

On the use of the Pronoun Adjective for a Conjunction, nullus for non, e.g. Asin. 408 “is nullus venit”, ‘he did not turn up,’ see IV. 28 The Adjective varius plays the part of a Perfect Participle Passive variatus in Mil. 216 “nisi quidem hic agitare mavis varius virgis vigilias.”