21
votes
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What is "Winter is Coming" in Latin?
Caesar (B. Gall., iii, 27) simply uses subest “be close at hand, be near”: ...quod hiems suberat...
Thus, hiems subest.
- 1,949
19
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Burn this Shirt
Sebastian's suggestion is perfect but just as an alternative, you could consider
Tunica comburenda est!
This is literally "the shirt must be burned", but for the amusement of Roman history ...
- 30.4k
17
votes
Joke variant of US motto
E unum pluribus has just the same meaning as the original (though you might better use the ex form of the preposition when it precedes a vowel).
The reverse, 'many out of one', would merely require ...
- 17.9k
17
votes
Accepted
What does "enim et" mean?
A quick web search shows that the phrase 'Diabolus enim et alii Daemones' (without the contra) appears to originate from the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215). The full sentence is Diabolus enim et ...
- 18.6k
17
votes
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Burn this Shirt
Where to start?
First, with a word for “burn.” The most general word is uro; however, in this case comburo (burn up, burn completely) is more fitting.
Next, “shirt” is always a bit difficult to ...
- 29.3k
16
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What is "Winter is Coming" in Latin?
I'm surprised appropinquo (sometimes spelled adpropinquo) hasn't been mentioned yet. Caesar (Bellum Civile 3.9) also uses this one, and to my ears, it better fits what is being said in the show.
...
cmw♦
- 47.8k
16
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Translating "Father knows beer best" into Latin
I'd go for a wordplay:
Pater optime cerevisiam sapit
Just as the other answers, pater is straightforwardly father
The verb sapio means both to taste and to know/understand. Hence sapit is the ...
- 10.8k
16
votes
How to translate "He who can, must"?
I have three suggestions:
Potentis est facere.
Qui potest, debet.
Si potes, fac.
The first one is "it is of the able to do", which in more fluent English would be "it is the duty of ...
- 109k
15
votes
Accepted
Is it acceptable/regular to use diacritics (macron) in written texts?
Latin doesn't have a single standardized orthography. The spelling "perfectio" is a fine way to write the Latin word for "perfection". In fact, a number of people would prefer "perfectio" over "...
- 25.3k
14
votes
Accepted
Translation from the English Apex Predator?
My suggestion is praedator summus.
The word summus means "highest", "top", "peak", "last", "supreme", "most important", and similar things.
See Lewis and Short (superus III.C) for details.
An apex ...
- 109k
14
votes
Accepted
Tastes Like Chicken
Gusto/gustare means to taste, but in the sense of someone having a taste of something.
The verb you are looking for, IMO is sapio/sapire. It can be accompanied by a noun in the accusative case to ...
- 10.8k
14
votes
Request for a Latin phrase as motto "God is highest/supreme"
The best phrase would be Deus optimus maximus, literally “God [is] best and greatest”.
Not only is the meaning right but it has an ancient lineage which makes it perfect for this use.
Iuppiter ...
- 1,400
14
votes
Translation of "Love makes it grow" in Latin for my tattoo
To offer a variant to the great suggestions by Nickimite:
Amore crescit.
[It] grows with love.
There is an implicit noun or pronoun of some kind, but you don't have to spell it out and it can ...
- 109k
14
votes
Is "mens semita tua" the correct translation for "mind your path"?
As Expedito Bipes says, via is probably a better word for "path" than semita in this context. I'm going to suggest a different verb:
Memento viae tuae.
Memento means "to mind" in ...
- 30.4k
13
votes
Accepted
Hogwarts Motto from J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series
You're right that it's a gerundive of obligation, and thus requires a form of esse. However, it doesn't have to be expressed. Tacitus Annals 1.29 contains two without esse, though they're in indirect ...
cmw♦
- 47.8k
13
votes
Accepted
Is "mens semita tua" the correct translation for "mind your path"?
I would translate it as:
Custodi viam tuam
The word semita denotes a narrow path and is probably not what you're looking for. I believe via would be a better fit, because it's often used in a more ...
- 10.6k
13
votes
How can I say "We shall want for nothing" in Latin?
This feels like it's intended as a callback to Psalm 23, which in the KJV starts:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
The corresponding line in the Vulgate (where it's Psalm 22):
Dominus ...
- 8,109
12
votes
Accepted
How do you say "under an angel's wing" in Latin?
It's the latter option. Angelus would be nominative, i.e. the subject of the sentence, whereas angeli here would denote possession. If she got the former translation, it reads "an angel under a ...
cmw♦
- 47.8k
12
votes
How can I say "We shall want for nothing" in Latin?
I agree that Psalm 23 is a natural choice, but if you wanted to avoid the religious connection, another common word for this is egere, and if you check under its entry on Lewis and Short (skip the ...
cmw♦
- 47.8k
11
votes
"Nil virtus generosa timet"
The motto calls upon connotations and associations in Latin that are hard to evoke in an analogous way in English. So here is a clumsy translation followed by some exposition of generosus and virtus ...
- 15.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Ars gratia artis
"Art for the Sake of Art"
This phrase, quite conveniently, uses the same word order in both English and Latin.
Ars, artis (artium) is a third-declension feminine noun. It can mean "art&...
- 59.9k
11
votes
Accepted
Velocitas eradico — "get rid of speed" or "with speed, eliminate"
I agree with varro that neither translation is correct.
The most sensible translation seems to be indeed "I, the speed, eradicate".
It's a weird personification, but possible.
However, it is more ...
- 109k
11
votes
Accepted
"Every Branch Shares The Same Root" - having trouble translating "Shares"
My suggestion is:
Rami universi ex una radice.
Literally, this means "all the branches from the same root".
There is no need for an explicit verb, especially for a motto.
There are a couple of ...
- 109k
11
votes
Latin Translation for "Death to the enemies of mankind"
I would go with
Mors humanae gentis inimicis.
This is a literal translation that follows the original pretty closely: mors "death", humanae gentis "of the human race, of mankind", inimicis "to the ...
- 30.4k
11
votes
Accepted
Greek quote source
The line is, in fact:
Τα γ’αριστα ουδεν ημιν αμεινονα
It would seem that, somewhere along the line, it has been transcribed incorrectly. I can just imagine a harried reporter hearing the line and ...
- 8,511
10
votes
Accepted
Does this Latin make sense?
Google Translate is notoriously bad with Latin.
It seems to have little understanding of Latin grammar.
If you only want single words, you are much better off using an online Latin dictionary of your ...
- 109k
10
votes
Translation from the English Apex Predator?
Apex is a noun, and Latin cannot, unlike English, use nouns as adjectives. I don't know if there was a set phrase for this term, though I doubt it.
Praedator is where we get the word 'predator' from,...
cmw♦
- 47.8k
10
votes
Accepted
Request for a Latin phrase as motto "God is highest/supreme"
While in classical Latin summus might have been the best word, the Christian tradition uses altissimus to translate both the Hebrew and the Aramaic words found in the Old Testament for the concept of “...
- 3,235
10
votes
How do you say "under an angel's wing" in Latin?
The first phrasing you quote has the nominative case angelus of the Latin word for an angel.
Thus it means roughly:
Sub ala angelus.
[There is] an angel under [a/the] wing.
Latin often leaves out &...
- 109k
9
votes
Accepted
"Nil virtus generosa timet"
Let's analyze the sentence word-by-word first:
Nil/nihil translates mainly as nothing (either noun or adverb). It is indeclinable (hence it gives no clue about its grammatical function in the ...
- 10.8k
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