I'm working on a project that may use one or more Latin phrases that refer directly to a US state or its nickname, but I'm having difficulty interpreting which translation of the word "state" would be best for each of these situations or if they are interchangeable. From what I understand, civitas refers to the social body, the constituency, or the community of citizens while res publica tends to be more about the government and authority, but can refer to the geographic boundaries (which also makes me question whether it should be the translation of land). I guess my question is if res publica were used in the translation of The State of Minnesota, would it then be used in the translations for The Gopher State, The North Star State, and The State of Hockey?
Other names/nicknames that I am looking to translate are as follows. I may consider prepending them with From as in From the State of Minnesota. Any assistance would be appreciated.
- The State of Minnesota
- The Gopher State
- The North Star State
- The State of Hockey
- The Land of 10,000 Lakes
- The State of Texas
- The Lone Star State
- The Friendship State
- The State of Illinois
- The Prairie State
- The Corn State
- The Land of Lincoln
- The State of California
- The Golden State
- The El Dorado State
UPDATE #1
Thanks to input below and from friends, here is my first pass on the translations. A couple of notes:
- A couple of the non-Latin words I couldn't figure out the appropriate declension or word order for, mainly thomomys and El Dorado, so those probably are wrong.
- I couldn't find a word for gopher. I'm guessing this is because this is a New World rodent, so I used the genus from the scientific name for the northern pocket gopher, Thomomys talpoides, though that has more Greek roots.
- For land, I ended up choosing between terra and tellus. It seemed to me that terra is more about geography while tellus is more about a community and selected them for The Land of 10,000 Lakes and The Land of Lincoln respectively.
- As far as 10,000, I wasn't sure if that should be written out as the words decem millium or the Roman Numeral X-bar. Vicipaedia had it as words, so that's how I have it below.
- For corn, it's unclear whether that's referring specifically to the crop or farming of cereal crops in general, so I put a couple of different words below.
The State of Minnesota
civitas Minnesotae
ex civitate Minnesotae
The Gopher State
civitas thomomys
ex civitate thomomys
The North Star State
civitas stellae septentrionalis
ex civitate stellae septentrionalis
The State of Hockey
civitas pilamallei super glaciem
ex civitate pilamallei super glaciem
The Land of 10,000 Lakes
terra decem millium lacuum
ex terra decem millium lacuum
The State of Texas
civitas Texiae
ex civitate Texiae
The Lone Star State
civitas solae stellae
ex civitate solae stellae
The Friendship State
civitas amicitiae
ex civitate amicitiae
The State of Illinois
civitas Illinoesiae
ex civitate Illinoesiae
The Prairie State
civitas prati
ex civitate prati
The Corn State
civitas frumenti/frugis/grani
ex civitate frumenti/frugis/grani
The Land of Lincoln
tellus Lincolnii
ex tellure Lincolnii
The State of California
civitas Californiae
ex civitate Californiae
The Golden State
civitas aurea
ex civitate aurea
The El Dorado State
civitas El Dorado
ex civitate El Dorado