Questions tagged [idiom]
For questions concerning expressions, word-plays, symbolic language, metaphors and the likes.
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How do you say "please" in Classical Latin?
I'm wondering how to say "please" in Classical Latin like "please" as in "can I PLEASE have that?" or "PLEASE go away" or something like that.
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"Oh no!" in Latin
Are there idiomatic Latin exclamations similar to the English "oh no!" used when one finds oneself in an unfortunate situation?
The only thing that I came up with is that I might want to use vae or o ...
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What is bullshit in Latin?
If a statement is blatantly wrong or shows lack of interest in the truth, one can call it bullshit in English.
But how about Latin?
Is there something more strong and colorful than falsus?
I am not ...
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How did the Romans say "good night"?
There are a lot of different things in a lot of different languages that mean basically the same thing: Sleep well.
English: Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite
Italiano: Buona notte, sogni d'oro
...
anon
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How do you write dates in Latin?
I have read a little about the history of the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Julius Caesar introduced the twelve-month Julian calendar in 46 BC, and Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian ...
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Are there native tongue-twisters in Latin?
Many languages have well established "tongue-twisters" (phrases difficult to articulate). In my native Spanish, "classic" examples are
Pedro Pablo Pinto Pérez Pereira, pobre ...
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What is "slipped my mind" in Latin?
In English and other languages, we often use alternatives to "I forgot," apparently to shift blame from ourselves to inanimate objects. So in English, we say,
It slipped my mind.
And in Spanish:
...
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What is a Latin version of Inshallah?
Anyone who served in the military in Iraq (and probably anyone who has done business in the Gulf) in the last 15 years is familiar with the term 'Inshallah.' I suppose it means 'God willing,' as in, "...
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What did the Romans use to close their letters?
As anyone who's written a proper letter knows, one begins with a salutation and ends with a valediction (or, in normal English, opens with "hello" and ends with "goodbye"). Right ...
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Is the usage of "id est" in Latin exactly like the usage of "i.e." or "that is" in English?
There was a question a little while back on the English SE asking about the "plural form of i.e." (unfortunately, it got closed because the author didn't clarify what they meant).
While I was trying ...
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What would be a "night owl" in Latin?
On the recommendation of an esteemed Finnish member of our forum, I decided to ask how one would translate "night owl" into Latin.
night owl (noun)
a person who keeps late hours at night
I ...
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How did the Romans wish good birthday?
I know how to wish a happy birthday in Latin: Bonum diem natalem!
(There are other options as well.)
It just occurred to me that I do not recall coming across any ancient birthday congratulations.
Do ...
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What do animals say in classical Latin?
It is well known that the way animals "speak" is amusingly different in different languages.
(See lion below.)
This makes it hard to guess what kinds of words the Romans would have put in the mouths ...
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Omnia vincit amor: vincere or vincire?
The phrase omnia vincit amor (from Vergilius' tenth Ecloga; see full text in Latin and English) is typically translated as "love conquers everything".
However, vincit can come from either vincere (to ...
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Proper parsing of "Ite, missa est"
In the Catholic liturgy at the dismissal, the Latin phrase used is "Ite, missa est." The usual translation for this is "Go, the Mass has ended."
Can someone suggest a proper parsing of this somewhat ...
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Saying "thank you"
I have only ever been taught one Latin translation for "thank you", and it is gratias agere (conjugated in a suitable way).
I just checked in L&S that this is indeed an attested use of gratia, ...
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Addressing a superior in Latin
Apologies if this is too basic, and feel free to delete, but I am curious to know how Romans would address a person of higher status - not a slave his/her master/mistress - but, for instance, a wage-...
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Is "esse est percipi" grammatical, even with infinitives?
According to the Crash Course Philosophy video today, George Berkeley summarized his empirical philosophy with the phrase "esse est percipi", to be is to be perceived. However, it feels somewhat ...
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How to translate "Ceteris Paribus"?
I'm studying economics, and the words ceteris paribus are often used. I know it means that one thing changes, but that the other factors stay the same.
I was trying to figure out the translation ...
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Ars gratia artis
I would like to know the meaning of the following Latin expression, as well as a grammatical analysis of the individual words in this context:
ARS GRATIA ARTIS
as it appears in the following logo ...
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Is there a Latinism for "under fire"/"in combat"/"under duress"?
This question is partially open ended.
I'm looking for a Latin idiom or euphemism or phrase that expresses something being from or related to practice as opposed to being related to theory. ...
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Feminine case 3rd-person version of “Veni, vidi, vici”
How does the famous saying:
Veni, vidi, vici.
have to be changed so that it describes a female person, such as in English:
She came, she saw, she conquered.
Reversing Google Translate gives ...
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How does one say "the will to live" in Latin?
Obviously, I don't trust Google translate, or I wouldn't be here.
Just to clarify:
By "The will", I mean "a deliberate or fixed desire or intention".
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I Can't See the Wood for the Trees
In a recent conversation, with Joonas (in our site's chat room), about chess, the well-known English idiom "can't see the wood for the trees" came up. This phenomenon--whether caused by a ...
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How do I address an email in Latin to my Latin professor?
How do I address an email in Latin to my Latin professor? How is the greeting supposed to look?
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French and Latin "s'il te/vous plaît"
The phrases si tibi placet and si vobis placet can be found in Latin literature, but they are not particularly common.
At least superficially they correspond to the French "s'il te plaît" and "s'il ...
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Does the "re" in emails have an ancient origin?
The Latin ablative re has become a word in English, meaning "regarding" or "with reference to" or something along those lines.
This is also used in emails as an automatically generated prefix "Re:&...
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"All the more so"
How, in classical Latin, did one say "all the more so" or otherwise indicate that a proposition harder than you're trying to prove has just been
proven, so your proposition must be at least ...
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Wordplay with "Vox Populi" (populus, m vs. populus, f)
Say I want to mock up the idiom "Vox Populi" using not "populus" (m, people) but "populus" (f, poplar tree). Meaning something like "the sound of the poplar leaves rustling".
Do I have a way to ...
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How to speak a language with a third declension adjective?
Most Latin adjectives related to names of countries and languages are of first and second declension: Latinus, Graecus, Anglicus…
If I want to express that I speak in any such language, I will ...
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How do I express total surprise or perplexity when asking a question?
Are there conventional expressions in Latin to strengthen the question, showing total surprise or perplexity? How do you say, for example, "What the heck...?" or "Why on earth...?" in Latin?
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Latin for "In war and in peace"
I remember reading long ago a pithy Latin expression for “in war and peace,” or “in war as in peace,” or something to that effect. The idea is that one might say, for example, that a certain truth ...
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How to say "please pray for me" in ecclesiastical latin?
I know that ora pro me means "pray for me", but how would I express my request politely, such as in the English equivalent "Please pray for me" ?
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En Marche ! in Latin
Macron's victory in France has got me wondering what would be the best way to capture the phrase "En Marche" in Latin?
My first thought was to use the incedere with perhaps prorsus, but the English ...
cmw♦
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Hogwarts Motto from J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series
Hogwarts, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter books, has the following Latin motto: Draco dormiens numquam titillandus.
Most online sources translate this as "Never tickle a ...
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How did the Romans congratulate a new father?
One of our users recently became a father and of course congratulations are in order.
How did the Romans do that?
More specifically, are there any attested congratulations to a new father in the ...
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Is there a John or Jane Doe in Latin?
In English, John Doe or Jane Doe is understood not to be an actual name of a person, but to be some kind of a placeholder name or mean an average citizen.
There are many variants of this name in ...
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apud + place name vs. locative
What is the difference, if any, between using apud with the name of a town, and using the locative form of that name?
Reading Suetonius Tiberius 40, I noticed this usage:
statimque reuocante ...
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Parsing "quod Deus optime vertat"
I want to understand a diploma text:
DIPLOMA
QVOD DEVS OPTIME VERTAT
EX LEGIBVS
VNIVERSITATIS JYVÄSKYLÄENSIS
ATQVE EX DECRETO
FACVLTATIS (…)
If I consider Diploma as a ...
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Which is more correct, "status quo" or "statu quo"?
I always heard and read the expression "status quo" but I just found the alternative spelling "statu quo" in the Italian translation of Motivational Interviewing by Miller e ...
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Ūtāturne linguā Latīnā aliquis adverbō «ferē» velut linguā Anglicā verbō «almost» ūtimur?
Linguā Anglicā, saepe cum multīs adverbīs atque adiectīvīs, plūrima quōrum significātiōnēs absolūtās habent (exempla sunt «always» vel «everything» vel «nothing» vel «never», et cētera), adverbō «...
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How to say "in all fairness" or "to be fair" in latin?
I am very new to Latin. I was wondering how you'd say something like "in all fairness" or "to be fair" in Latin. I have been searching for the answer for hours and I couldn't find ...
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Who invented the common expression "et cetera"?
This question seems to assume that the Romans actually used et cetera as we do. But did they really? By that, I mean: did they use et cetera at the end of a clause or phrase, without any noun agreeing ...
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How do I say "this is why…"?
I've seen this meme circulating lately, pointing out one of the many valid reasons to learn to speak dead languages properly:
My first thought was, "this is why we need to mark long vowels!" But I ...
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Could one consider using Latin as a daily casual language these days?
I just saw a video asking like how would one say I just had an avocado toast and thought about some of the new stuff that didn't exist back then. How would we integrate new words into the Latin ...
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How to say "Luke, I am your father" in Latin?
I have found very diverse translations online:
Luke, sum ipse patrem te
Luca, pater tuus sum (or in a different order)
Luke, ego patrem tuum sum
My guess
First, the Latin name Luke seems to be ...
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What era of Latin does Vox Populi come from?
I noticed there is a Vox Populi badge. Which era of Latin does Vox Populi come from? I only know a very little bit of classical (I'm starting the second unit of the Cambridge course), and from that, ...
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Parsing "quae cum audisset"
I'm having trouble parsing the phrase "quae cum audisset," which I've seen translated as "when [subject] heard" or "and when [subject] heard" in the latin vulgate. For ...
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How does one respond to "Quid agis."
"Quid agis?" is a common idiomatic expression meaning "how are you doing" and "what are you doing". It is similar to the French "ça va?" Some of the ways I have ...
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