I am just curious what a phrase "e pluribus smart assimus" means.
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3I am curious: Where did you come across that phrase?– Joonas Ilmavirta ♦Aug 19, 2018 at 8:36
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2@JoonasIlmavirta Twitch.tv chat :D, someone joked on this topic and everyone seemed like they know what it is all about. I didnt want to look stupid, so I asked here.– Penny DreadfulAug 20, 2018 at 9:59
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Thanks! Can you edit your question to add that background in? No matter how unreliable, unscientific and unanything it is, the source of the phrase does make a question more interesting.– Joonas Ilmavirta ♦Aug 20, 2018 at 17:27
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1 Answer
This is dog Latin for "out of many come smartasses" (or "a smartass"). It's modelled off the phrase ē pluribus unum, "out of many [comes] one", which is printed on American currency, plus the fake Latin smart-assimus for "smartasses". The -us is typically a singular ending, but is also commonly used to create dog Latin in general.
As a side note, while "smart" of course isn't Latin, assimus is a real word: it's the first person plural present active subjunctive of adsum/assum, "to be present". So assimus means "let's go be there!" But that's certainly not what the author of this phrase intended.
answered Aug 18, 2018 at 23:12
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This is right; except why do you translate smart assimus as plural? If it's a noun, as it's intended to be, it looks more like a singular (2nd decl.).– LarsHAug 19, 2018 at 9:49
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3@LarsH Mostly because the plural seems to make more sense in the context of the joke; I'm not sure the writer knew second-declension endings. (If they did, I wouldn't expect -imus as the ending at all.)– Draconis ♦Aug 19, 2018 at 15:43
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Maybe, but a lot of people who know practically no Latin know that -i is the plural of -us in Latin loan words. Also I don't see why the singular makes less sense in the context of this joke.– LarsHAug 20, 2018 at 2:50
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