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As a tongue-in-cheek joke, I'm trying to make a motto out of Russian phrase "впихнуть невпихуемое", which is literally translated as "to squeeze unsqueezable". 'Squeeze' being used in this context as 'to forcibly fit something into a tight place'.

This is a more informal version of "put a camel through the eye of a needle", basically.

I don't know a slightest bit of Latin, so tried my best with Wikipedia and came up with this:

urgeo inurgor

Rationale:

  • urgeo is something which comes in Google Translate for 'push'/'press'
  • in as a negative prefix
  • taken the stem urg- for the second word
  • -or suffix — one of verb-to-noun suffixes I found in the Wiki list

So, question is: Is this an accurate representation of the above ('to squeeze the unsqueezable')? Or is there a better way to squeeze the meaning in?

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    FWIW the camel through the eye of a needle is camelum per foramen acus. And to put it could be camelum per foramen acus ducere
    – Rafael
    May 18, 2016 at 18:52

2 Answers 2

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Urgueo/urgeo does mean "push/press," but it's more in the sense of trying to push forward rather than into something: militarily, rivers against a shore, age against a person as time passes. I don't think it's the right word.

I'm going to offer

Magna per lacunas ponenda parvas.

as a motto. A literal translation would be something like, "Large things must be put through small gaps." Latin has a pretty free word order, and putting magna ("large") first and parvas ("small") last creates a nice balance that's characteristic of mottos and aphorisms.

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    How about instringibilia interstringere to make it more of a wordplay? Interstringo is attested; *instringibilis seems like a natural construction
    – Rafael
    May 18, 2016 at 18:55
  • Well, it's attested, but it means "strangle" or "throttle," so I'm not sure it's what the OP is looking for. :) May 18, 2016 at 19:04
  • It also means to squeeze tight, or am I reading it wrong?
    – Rafael
    May 18, 2016 at 19:06
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    Hmm. Possibly it means that post-classically. I looked in a few places and found it in contexts where "squeeze tight" didn't make sense as a translation, but that doesn't mean it's not an option. I think, though, that even if it does mean that, inter probably indicates "between two hands" rather than "into something." May 19, 2016 at 1:53
  • @Rafael I know it's been about a year and a half, but your suggestion would still make a fine answer.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Nov 3, 2017 at 18:18
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Ok, four years later, at cmw's and Joonas' request, I propose,

instrinxibilia interstringere

Note that the first word isn't actually attested, but sounds like a natural construction of in– + strinxi + –bilis for unsqueezable. Here, the verb stringo means to draw tight, to bind or tie tight; to draw, bind, or press together. From that, instrinxibilia is a regular plural neuter, to mean the unsqueezable or just unsqueezable things.

The verb interstringo, -ere, in turn, is attested and means to squeeze tight.

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    Haha, you finally did it!
    – cmw
    Aug 12, 2021 at 17:52
  • Shouldn't it be instringibilia (as in your original suggestion)?
    – TKR
    Aug 13, 2021 at 1:21

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