Making a strong machine vs. making a machine strong

Question

Consider the two English expressions:

1. He made a strong machine. (He built a machine, and the machine is a strong one.)
2. He made the machine strong. (There was a pre-existing machine but it was not strong enough, so he improved it.)

How should I express the second kind of thing in Latin when I want to avoid interpretations of the first kind? My intuition is to go with facere for both, with a slightly different word order:

1. Machinam fortem fecit.
2. Machinam fecit fortem.

However, as the word order is quite free in Latin, the distinction is not clear enough. I would probably interpret the Latin phrases 1 and 2 both to mean the same as the English phrase 1.

It is quite possible that the best choice of words depends on context, but I am looking for an overall strategy for expressing the second English phrase. Perhaps there is a verb for turning something into something, which could be used with adjectives and does not have the connotation of producing a new item?

Answer 1

You could say Machinam firmavit. Here is the corresponding L&S page.

Another option would be Machinam fortificavit. Literally, the verb means fortem fecit, "fortified", though L&S point out fortĭfĭco is postclassical. They give Caelius Aurelianus as a reference, who lived in the fifth century AD.

It seems there was a specific word for just about every case in which the intended meaning was "to make something get a certain quality". Other examples are:

• gravo, as, avi, atum, āre (to make heavy, or to make painful)
• stabilio, is, ivi, itum, īre (to make stable)
• aequo, as, avi, atum, āre ( to equal, match someone/something, or to make something uncertain as in pugnam aequare)

A general strategy, though often but not always within Ecclesiastical and Medieval Latin, and not necessarily leading to actual words, is to compound the adjective and facio, giving birth to words such as fortifico, vilifico, nullifico, mortifico - the pattern is pretty clear, and still used in Italian to make new verbs, such as vanificare.