A Latin motto for SpaceX

Question

Jeff Bezos company Blue Origin has a motto “Gradatim Ferociter” or Step by Step Ferociously, although they seem to take a very long time to do anything. Elon Musk also runs a rocket company (SpaceX). It operates on very different lines and does not have a motto. I thought I might suggest one for them, but my Latin is sadly lacking.

SpaceX are more of a move quickly and break things organization. They also have a rocket engine called Velociraptor or Raptor for short so "Velociter" might work for the quickly part but I’m not sure about “move”, “break things” or how to arrange the words so that it makes grammatical sense.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

If you're looking for a Latin translation of the common tech bro line "Move fast and break things", a very straightforward option would be:

Prōcēde vēlōciter et frange rēs.

Prōcēdō seemed like a better option than the obvious moveō, since nominally progressive motion seems to be implied, not just random stirring. I used a singular imperative; for a motto an infinitive (prōcēdere) would probably work as well.

Vēlōciter (the adverb of vēlōx) works.

Frangō is to break into pieces; I chose it over e.g. rumpō or even afflīgō mainly because it's cognate with English break. Imperative again; infinitive would be frangere.

Rēs, finally, is the accusative (because direct object) plural of rēs 'thing'. It has many more uses than English 'thing' does, but it can be used for this as well.

As always, the macrons are optional. The only thing this translation has to commend itself is the fact that it maps cleanly to the English and is hard to misinterpret even if you don't speak a lot of Latin. If you did want to go with infinitives, I'd probably move the word order around to "velociter procedere et res frangere".

Answer 2

As Cairnavon already noted, for break, one can chose rumpo. In terms of sense I believe it is spot-on, but it also comes with a bonus: Latin has the idiomatic expression rumpe moras! literally means: break up delays! This is used by Virgil for example:

heia age, rumpe moras! (Come on! break up delay!); [Aen. 4:59]

So we might have something like:

Rumpe moras et res.

Instead of et what can use -que: Rumpe moras resque which is basically the same, but might carry a different tempo for a motto.

res however is quite general word, hence I feel it is maybe better avoided. Also maybe it should be somewhat distinguished from moras (as mora itself might be considered to be a res). It seems the Romans "liked" to "breaks chains", as rumpere vincula is a repeated phrase. I believe vincula can be used metaphorically (as mottos often do) for any obstacle or fixation (*). So we end up with:

Rumpe moras et (ulla/omnia) vincula. [break up delays and (any/all) chains]

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(*) This metaphorical usage is attested: Cic.Tusc.5.82.12:

quoniam te nulla vincula impediunt ullius certae disciplinae (you are not hampered by being tied to any definite school of thought. Loeb translation)