All Questions

I'm in a second semester latin class (hence this might be considered a beginner question) and I have a question about what to me at least is a translation conundrum. The phrase in question, Pliny 8.95,...

I have seen quite a few translations such as, Audentes Fortuna Juvas Audentis Fortuna Iuvat Audecis Fortuna Juvat But, what is the correct translation? I am looking for the one which matches ...

Are there any relationships between the given name Pompeius (like in Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus) and the city name Pompeii (the city thas was destroyed in a volcanic eruption? What do they mean?

I am looking for a Latin word that describes a person who: protects (is a guardian) is kind to takes responsibility of is kind of a deity for animals or for nature. Is there a certain word for that?

I'm working my way through Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, and I've come across something that's tripping me up when I try to write. Example: Gallia est in Europa (pardon the lack of accents); and ...

This question concerning the pluralization of letter names has led me to ask a somewhat related question on the use of Greek to clarify indeclinable nouns in Latin. The background to this question is ...

So this question asks about forming adjectives from nouns, but no clear answer is really given for a general method. In english, you can just use a noun as a adjective without any modification by ...

In English, it's very common to talk about letters of the alphabet in the plural: he writes his R's backwards, for example, is a perfectly natural sentence. But the Latin names for the letters don't ...

English has expresses advice in the present and past through the use of the following modal constructions: present: You should [...] present negated: You shouldn't [...] past: You should have [...] ...

There are various foods that are called "balls" in English, perhaps most famously "meat balls". What would be a good Latin word for a ball in this sense? I can think of words for a ball in general, ...

Looking for a name of my account in an MMO. The game mode I have selected for the character is that you can only die once, so I wanted to get a bit clever with the name. So, how do you say "One Death" ...

In the postscript to this answer, Varro comments: …the L&S entry for ἰχθυβολος shows two possible accents, a paroxytone ἰχθυβόλος for an active meaning, and a proparoxytone ἰχθύβολος for a ...

In Finnish it is possible to swear indirectly by replacing the swear word with a euphemism or perhaps a more innocent similar-sounding word. This is most common in exclamations like "oh [enter ...

What is the origin for the word "sex" in its various grammatical forms (the noun "sex" and the verb "sex")? What is the historical definition of this word? How has it morphed into the definition of ...

In Spanish, the word "tarde" has two different meanings: The part of the day between noon and dusk. Equivalent to the English noun "afternoon". Happening after the due, usual, or proper time. ...

Would "ἰχθύβολος ἄναξ" be a correct translation of "Fisher King" into Ancient Greek? (I want to use a derivative of ἰχθύς plus ἄναξ, not βᾰσῐλεύς)

(Digammas? Digammai? Digammata?) This question revolved around a dialectal form that I'd never seen before. Normally when encountering a new Greek word, Attic or otherwise, my first instinct is to ...

Text: ‹–u–x–uu–› Πόδας δέ ποίκιλος μάσλης ἐκάλυπτε, Λύδι- ον κάλον ἔργον. Apart from "WTF Edmonds, tradition is unanimous on ἐκάλυπτε (says Voigt, Edmonds has different opinions) and ...

Tradition: ἡμιτύβιον σταλάσσων Needed changes: Psilosis to ἠμιτύβιον; Changing to neuter gender: στάλασσον. Changes I cannot motivate: Edmonds writes στέλασσον, why would that be? From Lobel-...

This is kind of a mess. Let me first report how I tackled it when I first translated all (or most) of Sappho. Below is the translation of an extract of the Paracritical note I made back then, the ...

Here is the amended text, in almost the Lobel-Page version: ἀμφὶ ‹δ'› άβροισ‹ιν› λασίοισ' εὖ ‹ϝ'› ἐπύκασσεν The ‹δ'› is a correction from the tradition's λάβροις, the ‹ιν› fills in a hole in the ...

The part of fragment in the title reads: κἂν μέν τε τύλαγκας ἀσπόλεα Now, the only easy amendation that comes to mind here (other than erasing the space after τε) is κἂν->κὰμ. That gives us three ...

The conjunction et, in addition to its common use as a coordinating conjunction meaning and, can also be used adverbially, encompassing similar meanings as those found in words like etiam, item, etc. ...

I came across the expression libella maris in a scientific text from 19th century. There are many ways to parse it in the context, and one option that occurred to me is that maybe it stands for "sea ...

The tradition for this fragment is a horrible mess which I will detail in an addendum at the end (modulo updates) of the question by pasting the critical note I prepared this morning for it. Line 2 is ...

There is a traditional Finnish instrument (kannel or kantele) which tends to be called nablium in Latin. How do I form the adjective for someone bearing this instrument using -fer? There are things ...

In Attic-Ionic Greek, nouns with dental stems show two types of accusative singular endings, depending on the position of the accent: If the accent is on the final syllable of the stem, the ...

I am active in a small Latin Discord group; a member brought up a question concerning the validity of the following phrase with chained enclitics: Valēsneque? (with the enclitics distinguished) ...

Just to give you some language background from my side, I have not learned the Latin language at all, and my mother tongue is neither English nor any other Indo-European language. I am reading ancient ...

Latin has at least two words that straightforwardly translate to English "know": novi (perf. of nosco) scio Plautus combines the two pleonastically: nec vos qui homines sitis novi nec scio Here'...

Here is the quote: ἐκαλεῖτο δέ τις καὶ βαλανωτὴ φιάλη, ἧς τῷ πυθμένι χρυσοῖ ὑπέκειντο ἀστράγαλοι. Σῆμος δ᾽ ἐν Δήλῳ ἀνακεῖσθαί φησι χαλκοῦν φοίνικα, Ναξίων ἀνάθημα, καὶ καρυωτὰς φιάλας χρυσᾶς. ...

I came across the word tantibus while reading this page (as part of a bigger word, amalgotantibus), where it's claimed to be Latin for "nightmare"; a little bit of digging also revealed that it's the ...

This is the motto for my Dad's SWAT team. They wanted to have a Latin translation and which could be put on a shirt, and possibly their new badge.

Spanish word ocio (English: 'leisure') and negocio (English: 'business` among other meanings) come from Latin otium and negotium. Spanish ocio also gave ocioso, as in estar ocioso (English: 'to be ...

Looking at this in different editions, you find μεμειχμένα in Lobel-Page, Voigt (whence the above snippet), and Campbell, μεμειγμένα in Edmonds, and μεμιγμένα in Bergk. None of those offer any "...

Many stories, both ancient and modern, concern "possession": a supernatural entity of some sort takes over a human or animal body and controls it. Is there a Classical Latin word for this phenomenon? ...

In A new latin composition by Charles E. Bennett one may find following statement to translate into latin (from Lesson IV): This circumstance made the troops more courageous. My attempt at ...

I would like to give a memorable title to a short text that I am writing and I thought of the above one in reference to the short novel by E. A. Poe, The Purloined Letter. A few attempts with ...

Sorry for the vague title, but that is really the question. The problem is with the manuscript sources for Lobel-Page incerti auctoris 24. From Edmonds on, the sources are reported as: ...

In Vergil's Aeneid, Aeneas's son is given the name Iulus/Julus, which would correspond to the clan name Iulius/Julius. Not at all coincidentally, this implies a connection between the legendary hero ...

Trying to understand the subtle differences between the three words "nego", "ignoro", and "nescio". This question is not about the meanings in modern English, but the original meanings of the ...

This is a passage from Rosarium Philosophorum, an alchemical book. I am trying to read the book with the help of an English translation. The translator skipped a sentence, and I tried to translate the ...

The other day I watched Evil under the sun, a film about Agatha Christie's homonymous novel, where the following lines were said: Patrick Redfern: It's funny to think, if Giuseppe Verdi had been an ...

Can anyone help me out with the two Latin sentences in the quote below ? After googling and looking up a dictionary I was only able to come up with something like, "It is unncessary to employ many ...

There is a behavior that can arise when one does a favor for another person and after proceeds to put that person in a position they owe them something. Not to conflate in the "debt" or "indebtedness"...

I came across the phrase "excelsior aude" which seems to translate to courageously onward and upward? Is this accurate and would be it better reversed to aude excelsior or excelsior aude? Any thoughts?...

(Psalm 1:3, Clementine Vulgate) Et erit tamquam lignum quod plantatum est secus decursus aquarum, quod fructum suum dabit in tempore suo: et folium ejus non defluet; et omnia quæcumque faciet ...

I'm new to Latin. I've been learning for about a month. I'm wondering if anyone can explain why "poenas dare" is often translated as "to pay the penalties" instead of "to give the penalties". I feel ...

How could the verb phrase 'tidy up' be put in Latin please?

The rules for positioning of syllable stress in Latin are relatively simple; they are as follows: In two-syllable words, the stress always falls on the first syllable. In three or more ...