Questions tagged [latin-to-english-translation]
For questions about translating Latin words or phrases into English. Bulk translation requests are off-topic.
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What is Google Translate good for?
Google Translate is notoriously unreliable for Latin.
However, the translations do make some amount of sense.
Is there some kind of translation task involving Latin that Google Translate is relatively ...
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What is the best "worst" translation of Latin from Google Translate?
It's well-known on this community that you can't trust any Latin translation from Google Translate. A comment about translating goatherd with Google Translate got me thinking, though. What is the most ...
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What is the meaning of "Ex Lux", the name of Lucifer Morningstar's new bar?
I've been a fan of Mike Carey's Lucifer comic series, for its believable portrait of a fallen angel. The series spun off from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, which established this incarnation of Lucifer ...
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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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"qua dabatur liberum aeris spatium" in a letter of Erasmus
Erasmus's letter 1756 (readable in its entirety here) describes an explosion of gunpowder in a castle at Basel. I'm having trouble understanding a five-word phrase in the letter. This is the passage:
...
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Is there a word for ephemeral but meaning lasting one night?
Looking for a word like "ephemeral," which is derived from Latin "ephēmeros," meaning "lasting only a day," according to the Oxford Dictionary of English.
However, I'd ...
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Has anybody encountered this abbreviation/spelling before?
I need help transcribing the word in the red box: has anybody ever encountered this abbreviation/spelling before? Could anybody point me towards a resource that answers my question? I've looked in ...
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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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What does "quibus intemptata nites" (Odes 1.5.10–11) mean?
I'm currently reading Horace's Odes 1.5, and on lines 10–11 there's an odd construction:
...Miseri, quibus
intemptata nites...
Now, as far as I can tell, this literally means "Wretched people, ...
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Translation needed for 130 years old church document
I found this record of my great grandfather in a local church in Malaysia. Today, nobody use Latin anymore in this country. I should be much grateful if someone can help my family translating this ...
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What does this damaged inscription in a church say?
I've been sent the following photo of an inscription in a Unitarian church.
As best I can tell, it says:
Templum hoc [re]novat[u]m
est […]eribus denuo et inte[g]re[?]
regnante serenissimo dono ...
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What does "Vivos voco pedibus ioco" mean?
I am not familiar with Latin, but I found an engraving on a bench at the graveyard, that made me curious. It says,
vivos voco pedibus ioco.
Google Translate is not really helpful, as it ...
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3
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Help with Latin translation from a 17th century ecclesiastical Latin book
The book is Panoplia Clericalis, and the passage I'm having difficulty with (which I suspect is much easier than I think) is, from page 602:
De colorum mixtione, qui differunt, ex varia eorum ...
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1
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Help translating phrase from William Lilly's Christian Astrology
So I just started reading through William Lilly's 1647 work Christian Astrology and I came across a paragraph in Latin on p. ix of the Dedicatory Epistle that I can't seem to easily translate via ...
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'Quae pars anterior quae posterior jure habeatur in toto genere non liquet': taxonomical description of Antarctissa denticulata (Ehrenberg 1844)
In one of his 1844 manuscripts, C. G. Ehrenberg described the radiolarian species Lithobotrys(?) denticulata (now known as Antarctissa denticulata) and, as it was customary at the time, did so in ...
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Are there official Latin translators?
A colleague had this problem recently:
A degree certificate from their home university was issued in Latin, but they need it in English or Finnish for the purpose of a grant application.
Apparently no ...
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Does the abbreviation “ſ.” in this 1755 work mean “sine”?
For an answer on the RPG Stack, I’m trying to read some entries in Medicinisch-Chymisch und Alchemistisches Oraculum, a 1755 German work whose entries are in Latin. I’m stuck on these two entries:
...
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3
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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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Help Translating Text Found On Oil Painting
Need help in translating this text found on an oil painting. I believe it's medieval Latin but not sure if Christophorus and Lafranchini is the first and last name or two different people. Any help ...
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What's the difference between mutantur and mutamur?
A quote by John Owen:
Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
I was wondering if you could tell me the difference between mutantur and mutamur?
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What does "Hæc igitur illico non ingratanter Christianis patuit" mean?
I came across this phrase in Historia Hierosolymitana by Baldricus Dolensis (c. 1050–1130): What does these two sentences mean? I would appreciate any help.
Hæc igitur illico non ingratanter ...
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Allecto's cerulean hair in *Æneid* VII.346-7
In VII.346-7 of the Æneid, when Juno sics Allecto on Amata, we have
Hic dea cæruleís únum dé crínibus anguem
Conjicit inque sinum præcordia ad intima subdit.
Allecto's … blue hair? Hunh?...
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What does "novit in tali" mean?
I'm reading Arcadius Avellanus's translation of fairy tales (he was the last known native speaker of Latin), and I've come across this sentence:
Regia Filia jocum dignata mittit ancillam cum ...
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3
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A Latin text with dependency tree
I am looking for a Latin text that has word by word English translation and explanation. I mean after the translation, it explains that this word has ablative case and that has nominative or this verb ...
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Meaning of "SEVERA INDEOVI VAS" from 3rd Century slab
Can someone explain the meaning of the words "SEVERA INDEOVI VAS" on this slab:
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depiction_of_Jesus, the above image is of an "Incised sarcophagus slab with ...
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Potentially Ambiguous Subject for a Verb in the Aeneid
Lines 405–407 of Vergil's Aeneid, Book 6, are as follows:
Si te nulla movet tantae pietatis imago,
at ramum hunc" (aperit ramum qui veste latebat)
"agnoscas." Tumida ex ira tum corda ...
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Is it gibberish, a real ceremony, or a Latin joke?
I have just been watching an old TV series called Porterhouse Blue which is a Tom Sharpe comedy about an ultra-conservative and old fashioned university called Porterhouse. At one point there is a ...
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"Non possunt dari" translation
Please could someone explain what I am missing here?
In Spinoza's The Ethics, Proposition V is said:
PROPOSITIO V: In rerum natura non possunt dari duæ aut plures substantiæ ejusdem naturæ sive ...
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Origin of "seize the day" as a translation of Horace's carpe diem
Even many people who have never studied Latin know the phrase carpe diem (from Horace's Odes 1.11), and can tell you that it means "seize the day". But "seize" is not a very close translation of ...
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Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum – Lucretius
I saw this quote in someone's forum sig file (signature): "Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum." - Lucretius
Curious, I consulted Google Translate, which my professional translator brother cautions ...
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How should "porta itineri longissima" be interpreted?
According to a comment by @SebastianKoppehel, the interpretation of porta itineri as "the gate to the journey" seems questionable. Wiktionary, for example, has the following translation:
...
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What does "illos" refer to in this passage from Seneca?
While researching an answer for this question, I came across the following passage from Seneca. The bolded part, particularly "illos", left me with some doubts about the sentence syntax:
Et quid ...
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Translation of "...quae parvas aves capit et est."
I was reading Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata to practice my fluency of understanding simple sentences. In the tenth chapter, Bestiae et Homines (page 69), I came across a description of eagles.
...
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Translation: «impulsi sunt et ipsi Christi amore»
I’ve yet another question on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). (I did find another instance of the gerundive—I believe with a preceding ad indicating purpose—and Cerebrus’ instruction ...
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Rupes Recta, The Straight Wall, Correct Translation
Rupes recta is the name given to a feature on the Moon. This feature is also known as the straight wall or straight cliff.
Is rupes recta the correct Latin phrase for straight wall or straight cliff?
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Translation of building inscription regarding architect of Alcantara Bridge
The Alcantara Bridge in the Extremadura region of Spain is one of the oldest structures extant whose architect is known by name. It spans the Tagus River near the modern-day border of Spain and ...
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How much larger are Latin texts translated into English?
Judging by number of words, how much translation from Latin to English grow in size? Naturally, this would depend on the text (and the translator), but I imagine there might be some form of range or ...
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How to understand 'quae prosum sola nocendo'?
There is a line in Ovid's Metamorphoses II 519, which I don't understand at all
(Juno's complaint)
'quaeritis, aetheriis quare regina deorum
sedibus huc adsim? pro me tenet altera caelum!
...
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edere panem vs. comedere panem
Consider the following minimal pair:
edere panem 'to eat (the) bread'
comedere panem 'to eat up the bread'
When a resultative prefix is present (e.g. com- in comedere), panem is necessarily understood ...
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Can "illa" be used to mean "there?"
Dīxit, et potentem hastam magnīs vīribus manūs sinistrae in uterum equī iēcit; stetit illa, tremēns.
Does stetit illa refer to the spear? As in "it stands there?" Is illa capable of carrying that ...
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What does "tom. i." mean?
I'm seeing the following abbreviation in several book/manuscript citations, particularly in religious works, but I have no idea what the abbreviation means. From the context of where I'm finding it, I'...
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2
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Dominus illuminatio mea
I am trying to understand this expression. According to Wikipedia, it is translated as "The Lord is my light".
Before reading this article, I thought this meant "Lord illuminate me", perhaps in ...
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Translation of a passage related to the crusades
I am a historian, and I came across a text from Bauldric of Dol, a medieval historian. This text is about the crusades. I have been unable to translate the following passage. Could someone here help ...
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What's the best way to translate "de Hercule famam acceperat"?
I'm translating the text:
Pluto, qui de Hercule famam acceperat, eum benigne excepit
(Fabulae Faciles, 53)
I chose to translate it as "Pluto, who had heard stories about Hercules, received ...
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What does the "Lorem Ipsum" mean?
"Lorem ipsum" is a filler text commonly used to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation. But what does it mean? Can you give a brief review of the text's origin?
Lorem ...
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Translation of Lines 333–336 of Vergil's Aeneid Book 4
Tandem pauca refert: "Ego te, quae plurima fando
enumerare vales, numquam, regina, negabo
promeritam, nec me meminisse pigebit Elissae
dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus. (4:333&...
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Montes nec non vorticum timores... - is this correct Latin?
MONTES NEC NON VORTICUM TIMORES METUSQUE VICERUNT ATQUE MUNIFICI CATENARUM ADMINICULA FIERI FECERUNT
I found this (Latin?) inscription on a commemorative plaque in the mountains.
My questions:
Is ...
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What does "Non procul abest" mean?
In chapter 8 of Lingua Latina per se illustrata we have:
Non procul abest.
What does this mean?
I understand every word but not really the sentence.
If it was "non procul est" I would ...
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Did I translate this Latin prayer to St Michael the Archangel correctly?
A recent question (related to Catholicism) on Christianity SE has an answer which contains a Latin prayer to St Michael the Archangel. I posed a question on the meaning of part of that prayer, but ...
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Ablative considered as an accusative
In my Latin-Italian dictionary I found this expression:
arva sanguineo gyro scribo
that is translated as:
I draw a blood circle on the ground.
But, gyro is an ablative. Why is it considered as ...
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