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There is a video game character called mind bender. Among other things, he can make an enemy unit run over to your side, that is, turn a foe into friend.

That's why he can bend their minds.

What would you call a mind bender in Latin?

My attempt: mens flector

According to Google Translate, mens means mind and flecto — to bend or twist.

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This is a bit of a stretch, but …

Thinking along the lines of ossifragus (bone-breaking), I wonder if maybe you can form a compound adjective. -fragus is weirdly irregular, but there are more regular ways (see section 251). Noting that “-āx denotes a faulty or aggressive tendency,” you could form mentiflectax, -acis. The prefix menti- is derived from mens, mentis with the addition of the popular i infix. Mens itself seems a fine choice, and the alternatives like animus are unwieldy; it is quite a mouthful as it is.

This is an adjective, but you can use it as a standalone word like a noun if you like. (This is comparable, for example, to mendax, “prone to lying,” or “liar.”)

For example: Sumus oppugnati ab hostibus mentiflectacibus = “we were attacked by the mindbending enemies.”

Nihil sub sole novum: there was actually a video game with “Mindbenders” in the title as early as 1988 ;)

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  • I wonder if mentiflex wouldn't be more natural (along the lines of e.g. pontifex).
    – TKR
    May 27, 2020 at 20:18
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The verb flectere is indeed a great choice. The perfect participle stem is flex- (you may find the verb listed as flectō, flectere, flexī, flexus, and you need the last part), so the agent noun is flexor. I'm sure flector will be understood, but is not quite correctly formed.

Also, mens is great for "mind" here. As Figulus points out, the genitive is needed here. I would use the plural genitive; the person bends many minds. My form of choice is thus mentium.

I suggest the opposite word order. It is idiomatic in Latin and also — to my year — simply sounds better for a name. Thus I recommend flexor mentium, which is quite literally "bender of minds".

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Welcome to the site!

I think you are on the right track, but I would change two details. Instead of mens in the nominative (which is Latin's subject case) I would use mentis, which is an objective genitive, since mind is the object of bending action.

I would also use flexor instead of flector, I think that is the more regular formation.

So, mentis flexor.

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In the 1960s hallucinogenic drugs were referred to as "mind-bending", "mind-altering". Adherents, under the influence ("tripping"), believed that they could fly (a one-way trip), among other fantasies. Here, "bending" could be synonymous with "intoxicating".

In Latin, verb "to intoxicate" is given as "(ebrium) reddo", where adjective "ebrius" = drunk; intoxicated & "reddo" = "render" (Oxford). Giving (using a present participle):

"mentem reddens ebriam" = "mind-bending (intoxicating)"; literally, "rendering an intoxicated mind").

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    Perhaps this idea could work with inebriator, "drunk-maker", which is a one-word way of saying ebriam reddens. That with a partitive genitive (mentis/mentium inebriator) sounds pretty nice, even if not bending in the same way as the OP probably intended.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    May 28, 2020 at 11:41
  • @Joonas llmavirta: Thank you. There are always alternative approaches, even if they do get me into trouble. Mind (no pun intended) imagining that one can fly (people died on these "trips") is as "bending" as it gets.
    – tony
    May 28, 2020 at 11:46

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