how do you translate the phrase "never stop fighting" into latin

Question

My best guess would be "numquam īnsistite pūgnant". I use the plural imperative form of īnsistere, because this is technically a command from someone to "never stop fighting", and the 3rd person plural of pugnare, since this is a general message to everyone, or should it be a participle instead? What is the most appropriate way to translate this?

I want to use this as a motto for an organization based in an online game, i want the translation to be as accurate as possible, also it embarrassing for me to get this wrong since I've already taken 2 courses on latin.

Answer 1

Insistere means “to stop” only in the sense of “to halt, to stop advancing” (i.e., to stop walking, to pause in a speech or whatever), but not in the sense of “to cease doing something.” A more fitting word would be desinere.

Now, a negative command would usually not use the imperative, but ne + perfect subjunctive. It is generally (at least in classical Latin) not done that a different negative word like numquam is used (although I think nihil is sometimes found instead of ne quid), so instead we would say: Ne umquam desieritis. And indeed, if you Google, you find this suggestion (or the singular ne umquam desieris) for “never stop, never give up” in a number of Latin forums.

Finally, pugnant means “they fight,” and I'm not really sure how you think it connects to the rest of the sentence. Desinere in any case usually stands with the infinitive (pugnare desinere), although you could also use it transitively (pugnam desinere). Or you could use a single-word translation for “stop fighting” like concedere.

So a few options would be:

• Ne umquam pugnare (or pugnam) desieritis.
• Ne umquam concesseritis.