When reading this question's accepted answer about phrases for forgetting, I saw the phrase recte admones translated as "you do well to remind me". But, doesn't that mean "you remind directly"? I don't understand how this phrase was translated or what the intended phrase was.
asked Mar 9, 2017 at 18:40
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1 Answer
Recte far more often means "rightly." As Lewis & Short puts it:
- Trop., rightly, correctly, properly, duly, suitably, well, advantageously, accurately (very freq. in all periods and styles):
They then cite a huge paragraph of examples.
The rest is just idiom. It does indeed mean "you rightly remind me," especially given the rest of the context, which are little figures one could use when something ostensibly spontaneous is brought to attention.
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This would explain much of my confusion with such phrases. I usually write down and study a word with one definition that I heard, assuming all usages are identical, forgetting to ever look it up. I first encountered "rectus" a long while ago, when I, intrigued, decided to watch Evan der Millner's video on the types of paths. Among these was "via recta," described as "direct path". Now, I'll be careful to examine alternative definitions. Mar 10, 2017 at 0:06