Latin Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, teachers, and students wanting to discuss the finer points of the Latin language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I am considering a tattoo in Latin, and I want it to say "destroy the bad", or perhaps "get rid of the evil". I want the translation to be short due to space constraints.
I looked online and I found exitium for "destroy" and malus for "bad". Would "Exitium Malum" work? Exitium is neutral and you would use the accusative malum since it's the direct object, right?
I've learned some individual phrases, but I don't really know any Latin. I'm not going to trust Google on this.
Exitium is a noun , and technically malum is an adjective (though it's often used substantively), so the phrase together means "evil destruction." That's not what you're going for.
You have several option for "destroy", though, so ultimately it's a matter of picking what sounds best. One option is dele malum. This means something along the lines of "put an end to evil." Scipio, in conquering the Carthaginians, futura bella delevit, "put an end to future wars" (Cic. Amic. 11).
The word has a biblical sense to it, as well. In Genesis 6, when god is talking to Noah, he says that he delebo...hominem "will destroy man." In 6.13, though, he uses the word disperdo, so that's another option. That form would be disperde malum.
Funnily enough, there's yet another word used in the passage at 6.17, interficere, though that most often is a straight forward word for "to kill." It returns to delere in 7.23.
Another very good word to use, that also has a biblical feeling to it, is perde. Classicists will know it from Catullus 8, Catullus' mourning of his lost (perditum) love with Lesbia. Those reading the Vulgate might recall a question Jesus asked the "scribes and Pharisees" about the Sabbath, "if it's permitted to do good on the sabbath or to do evil (malum), to save a life or to destroy (perdere) it?"
Personally, I prefer this one best. It really has the sense of "destroy utterly", whereas delere to me sounds too much like "delete", though clearly this is just my Anglophone ears reacting to the otherwise healthy Latin word. Still, can't beat Catullus. I also think the imperative of delere (i.e. dele) looks funny, too, especially compared to perde.
To sum up, my suggestion is: Perde Malum.
There's a lot to play around with, too, if you want to add more than a simple "destroy the bad."
It would be fun to have "Malum Delendum Est", which means "Evil must be destroyed", because of the famous Cato quote to the Senate during the Punic Wars, "Karthago delenda est," so you could impress us Latin nerds when we see your tatoo. For the command of "Destroy the Bad" that you want, however, my suggestion would be "Perde Malum". "Perde nefas" also sounds cool, which means something like "Destroy evil/sin".
