Reg Latin scholars scrap over LOHAN's stirring motto It's fair to say that the quest for a stirring motto for our proposed Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission patch is proving to be the most fun we've had in a long while. A proposed LOHAN mission patch So great was the response to our call for suggestions that we're buried under a magnus congestus of Latin, a …
... Latin - a subject I never studied at all being just a poor plebian
The vast majority of the population of the Roman Empire was made up of foreigners, slaves, or freedmen. To be one of the plebes -- the lowest rank of actual citizens -- you would almost certainly have been Roman, so your native language would very likely have been Latin.
... or perhaps you were just being ironical?
"And I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad that my own entry (in Latin - a subject I never studied at all being just a poor plebian) didn't get a mention or argument either."
In the case of my offerings it should probably be Google Translate that is unsure if it should be happy or sad. :)
The "WD" in WD-40 stands for "water displacement," so to rephrase: With duct tape* and Water Displacement 40. Using Google Translate (with apologies), it yields this:
Ductum lineam, et cum Praesentibus Aquam XL
Going back the other direction gives us this mess: Drawing the line, and with the presence of water, 40. Clearly this needs work that I'm not up for... er... for which I am not up.
* Duck Tape is a brand name.
from my O-level days, that (IIRC) most educated Romans spoke Greek. In fact doesn't Robert Graves put a brief bit in "I Claudius" as to why it was written in Latin, rather than Greek ?
In which case, I introduce astroployen from 35 years ago, as the Greek word my friends and I invented for "spaceship". After all, we use "Astro*naut*" ...
Just wanted to say that dodgy puns like this (and the attention to detail in the delightful article that spawned it) is one of the main reasons I love el Reg so much.
Two. Two main reasons. And whoever writes the subheads on the front page has those occasional flashes of brilliance that makes whatever rubbish is in the story well worth reading.
So the three main reasons I love the Reg...
Barkeep! A round to the Reg team on my way out!
Ah, that brings back memories (although it certainly does not bring back any knowledge of the subject).
I remember taking Latin for one year at High School, we had a teacher who's accuracy with the blackboard eraser was lethally accurate, but I digress. My point being that it brought back this...
Latin is a language, as dead as dead can be
It killed the ancient Romans
And now it's killing me.
Curabitur in maxima eruditorum commentariis.
I did Latin at school for, um, two years? Hated every moment. I can remember more from Asterix books than anything we did at school, which led to me having to explain to the class exactly what "timeo danaos et dona ferentes" means, and feeling a lot like Brian facing the centurion.
I also was taught Latin for one year, before being kicked off the course (family tradition).
My Latin master* had taught the father of one of my friends and was consequently approximately as old as his subject in our eyes. His way of 'encouraging' pupils to remember was to grab you by the ear and twist.
That scene in Life of Brian is pretty accurate in a lot of ways.
* I use the word master instead of teacher because it fit him much better, he was from the proper old school.
I agree that "Navis volitans mea plena anguillarum est" is a winner.
I think repleta is the word for "filled up with", as plena seems to mean full in the sense of complete, or even plump. And I'm not sure about the genitive case; "full of" has the feel of an English idiom, but I can't think of a more appropriate case. Possible alternatives:
Navis volitans mea subter anguillis repleta est (Filled under eels? Nah.)
Navis volitans mea per | propter anguillas repleta est (Filled by, or on account of eels.)
Navem volitantem meam anguillae replent (Seems to imply that the eels did the filling.)
Where is John Cleese when you need him?
Kubla Cant, the division is not “full of” + “something”, but “full” + “of something”; that is, adjective + genitive. Plenus/plenum/plena is perfectly acceptable in this way: Cicero used plenum sceleris (“full of wickedness”), and Horace used plenum laetitiae (“full of happiness”).
Oddly enough, my Latin grammar book notes two exceptions from Early through “Golden Age” Latin: for adjectives denoting either fullness or deficiency only, adjective + ablative was equally acceptable. Thus, plena anguillis could also have been used.
Given the lack of balloons in Roman times (or helium either but never mind) an alternative metaphor might an inflated bladder. It has the added bonus of alluding to the after effects of a few celebratory drinks.
Google Translate then suggested "to the stars on an inflated bladder" becomes
vesica inflata ad astra
Sorry.
And frankly, that's all I remember. Except that my Latin teacher confirmed the stereotype: of advanced age, extremely well educated, deadly boring and barely tolerant of we young whippersnappers who couldn't see the use of learning such a beautiful languiage.
Two years...wasted. Oh well, not much Latin required in Electrical Engineering, thank God.
// This has been a memorably good thread.
// The one with the Cassell's in the pocket, please
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