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Wrzlprmft
Wrzlprmft
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Background

In the TV Seriesseries Fallet, some of the upper class of the fictional town of Norbacka use the phrase

supra se servitium

as a sort of salutation. Its meaning is never elaborated upon.

My attempt

I tried and failed to understand this phrase with my rusty Latin:

  • supra means over, before, or similar and takes the accusative.
  • se is the reflexive pronoun in the accusative or ablative, i.e., roughly himself, herself, etc.
  • servitium means servitude or servantry and is in the nominative or accusative case.

My ideas so far are:

  • The object of supra is se. This would yield a meaning like

    servitude over oneself

    which I fail to make sense of in this context (or any other).

  • The object of supra is servitium. This would yield something like

    over the servitude/servantry

    which makes more sense, but leaves the se dangling.

  • It is some badfalse Latin thatwhose intended meaning may be appreciated with some knowledge of Swedish. This would be consistent insofar as the entire town of Norbacka is oozing with incompetence.

Question

What’s the meaning or intended meaning of this phrase?

Background

In the TV Series Fallet, some of the upper class of the town of Norbacka use the phrase

supra se servitium

as a sort of salutation. Its meaning is never elaborated upon.

My attempt

I tried and failed to understand this phrase with my rusty Latin:

  • supra means over, before, or similar and takes the accusative.
  • se is the reflexive pronoun in the accusative or ablative, i.e., roughly himself, herself, etc.
  • servitium means servitude or servantry and is in the nominative or accusative case.

My ideas so far are:

  • The object of supra is se. This would yield a meaning like

    servitude over oneself

    which I fail to make sense of in this context (or any other).

  • The object of supra is servitium. This would yield something like

    over the servitude/servantry

    which makes more sense, but leaves the se dangling.

  • It is some bad Latin that may be appreciated with some knowledge of Swedish. This would be consistent insofar as the entire town of Norbacka is oozing with incompetence.

Question

What’s the meaning or intended meaning of this phrase?

Background

In the TV series Fallet, some of the upper class of the fictional town of Norbacka use the phrase

supra se servitium

as a sort of salutation. Its meaning is never elaborated upon.

My attempt

I tried and failed to understand this phrase with my rusty Latin:

  • supra means over, before, or similar and takes the accusative.
  • se is the reflexive pronoun in the accusative or ablative, i.e., roughly himself, herself, etc.
  • servitium means servitude or servantry and is in the nominative or accusative case.

My ideas so far are:

  • The object of supra is se. This would yield a meaning like

    servitude over oneself

    which I fail to make sense of in this context (or any other).

  • The object of supra is servitium. This would yield something like

    over the servitude/servantry

    which makes more sense, but leaves the se dangling.

  • It is false Latin whose intended meaning may be appreciated with some knowledge of Swedish. This would be consistent insofar as the entire town of Norbacka is oozing with incompetence.

Question

What’s the meaning or intended meaning of this phrase?

Source Link
Wrzlprmft
Wrzlprmft
  • 1.2k
  • 1
  • 11
  • 32

Meaning of “supra se servitium”

Background

In the TV Series Fallet, some of the upper class of the town of Norbacka use the phrase

supra se servitium

as a sort of salutation. Its meaning is never elaborated upon.

My attempt

I tried and failed to understand this phrase with my rusty Latin:

  • supra means over, before, or similar and takes the accusative.
  • se is the reflexive pronoun in the accusative or ablative, i.e., roughly himself, herself, etc.
  • servitium means servitude or servantry and is in the nominative or accusative case.

My ideas so far are:

  • The object of supra is se. This would yield a meaning like

    servitude over oneself

    which I fail to make sense of in this context (or any other).

  • The object of supra is servitium. This would yield something like

    over the servitude/servantry

    which makes more sense, but leaves the se dangling.

  • It is some bad Latin that may be appreciated with some knowledge of Swedish. This would be consistent insofar as the entire town of Norbacka is oozing with incompetence.

Question

What’s the meaning or intended meaning of this phrase?