25
votes
Accepted
How do you translate "Don't Fear the Reaper" into Latin?
Neither is correct, and timetere isn't a real Latin word. A correct translation depends somewhat on whether the command is directed at one person (e.g., you, the bearer of the tattoo) or the world at ...
- 19.3k
22
votes
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Translation of a phrase "Catch the moment, ..." to Latin
There is a well-known Latin equivalent in fairly common use : carpe diem (literally, 'seize the day), taken from Horace, Odes 1.11. The full phrase is carpe diem quam minimum credula postero, implying ...
- 18k
19
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Please help translate this short Latin phrase left behind by a deceased man
Pray to God but row away from the rocks.
You are correct in that ora means "pray" (it is the singular imperative of oro). Deo (dative of Deus) is the "to God" bit. Sed means "but," ab saxis (ablative ...
- 3,968
19
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How do you translate "Don't Fear the Reaper" into Latin?
When (Sir) Terry Pratchett was knighted, he chose this phrase as his heraldic motto. The official translation in that context is Noli Timere Messorem.
This isn't the most natural word order (which ...
- 65.1k
16
votes
Accepted
How to say "not safe for work" in Latin?
I would translate "not safe" with inconveniens or haud opportunus. I have always found "work" difficult to translate, since it reflects a post-industrial cultural division between "work" and "life" ...
- 39.5k
16
votes
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 ...
- 11.1k
15
votes
How to say "everything will be good" in Latin?
The verb cadere ('to fall'), when paired with an adverb (or when its subject is paired with an adjective), can mean 'to turn out (in the manner denoted by the adverb/adjective)' – for example:
quis ...
- 19.3k
15
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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 ...
- 11.1k
13
votes
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Translation of a passage related to the crusades
This quote is from the Historia Ierusalem Baldrici Dolensis Archiepiscopi, Book 2 (pg. 1092 of Migne, Patrologia Latina, CLXVI).
Your quote is only a fragment of the relevant sentence, which is ...
- 39.5k
13
votes
Is "servos" accusative plural in Plautus's "is est servos ipse" and, if that's the case, why does "esse" takes accusative case there?
To expand a little on Joonas's answer, the nominative singular ending in Latin was originally /os/ for all masculine nouns of the second declension, which developed to /us/ as part of a more general ...
- 27.3k
13
votes
Shorter translation of "As above, so below"
The phrase you are looking for is either of these:
Ut supra, sic infra.
Ut supra, ita infra.
They both mean the same thing. I think the first one sounds better.
I just searched a bit for these on ...
- 15.9k
13
votes
Accepted
Are plural Latin participles sometimes translated singular? E.g., "peregratis" in Acts 19:1
Because peragratis is a passive participle, it does not mean "having passed through", but instead means "having been passed through".
Therefore, it can't be used as a modifier of ...
- 27.3k
12
votes
Accepted
'Quae pars anterior quae posterior jure habeatur in toto genere non liquet': taxonomical description of Antarctissa denticulata (Ehrenberg 1844)
I would translate the boldfaced sentence as
It is not clear which part would be rightfully considered the front and which part the rear in the whole genus.
For creatures of that appearance, that ...
- 111k
12
votes
Is "servos" accusative plural in Plautus's "is est servos ipse" and, if that's the case, why does "esse" takes accusative case there?
It is servŏs in both instances, not servōs.
The old form of the nominative has the ending -os instead of the later -us.
What you see is indeed the singular nominative, but not in the form ...
- 111k
12
votes
Accepted
Is "sentire omnia" the correct way to say "feel everything"?
Sentire is an infinitive, corresponding to the English "to" form. So sentire omnia by itself means "to feel everything" (depending on context, one might translate it differently). ...
12
votes
"Let the fu—rs rot"
First, this let is translated as the present subjunctive (as in “let there be light” – fiat lux from fieri, to be made, to come into existence).
Second, defututus means – well – to quote Lewis & ...
12
votes
How can I properly translate possessive form of nouns?
In general, don't focus on every word having an equivalent in the other language. For example, the single word magistrō would generally be translated into multiple words like "to the master"....
- 65.1k
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 ...
- 15.9k
11
votes
Accepted
Ablative considered as an accusative
The Latin you provide is actually incomplete (though not incomprehensible). The English translation is not accurate at all.
The quote in question, which appears in the L&S entry for scribo, ...
- 39.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Correct paraphrase of "navigare necesse est" to "angling is necessary"?
In Latin, "fish" is piscor, -ari, -atus sum, a first conjugation deponent verb.
The form you use, piscantur, is third person plural. It means "they fish."
The original phrase is a later Latin ...
- 39.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Cicero sentence
Note the forms of the other verbs in this passage:
Ex patriis ritibus optuma colunto.
From the ancient rites, let the best be cultivated.
This is a third-person imperative, something we don't have ...
- 65.1k
11
votes
Accepted
"Let the fu—rs rot"
My vote would go for:
Fellatores in malam crucem
Unlike some of the other suggestions you might come across, fellator ("sucker") is an attested obscenity. It seems to be a favorite of ...
cmw♦
- 52.2k
10
votes
I do what I want VS Quid me vis facere VS Facio quod volo
I would venture to suggest an emendation of your first option:
Facio quod velim.
Or, to amend the order in a way that sounds more fluent to my ear:
Quod velim facio.
The difference is that velim ...
- 39.5k
10
votes
Accepted
How to say "I live for my family" in Latin?
I'd suggest something like Familiam ad sustinendam vivo. Literally translated, this means something like "I live for the sustaining of my family." Latin word order is pretty free, so putting familiam (...
- 16.4k
10
votes
Accepted
Hominem super hominem
The word futuraram is not well-formed: the closest correct form is futurarum (feminine genitive plural) but actually futurorum (masculine genitive plural) is the only form that seems to make sense in ...
- 39.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Alea iacta est, plural version?
The plural would be aleae iactae sunt.
Alea / aleae is nominative, because it's the subject of a passive verb-form.
Note that, if you used the accusative case for alea, the verb would have to be in ...
- 18k
10
votes
Accepted
What does "Attero Dominatus" mean?
The official translation is off.
I am rather annoyed that people put time and money into projects like this but do not take more care with the translation of a name — but I refrain from ranting ...
- 111k
10
votes
Accepted
"Opusculum hoc, quamdiu vixero, doctioribus emendandum offero."?
Hoc (here hoc is simply 'this.') opusculum This little work,
, quamdiu vixero, for as long as I shall live,
doctioribus (here dative after offero) to those more learned
emendandum offero I offer ...
- 8,643
10
votes
Accepted
Struggling to translate "iuvenum" in a sentence
This is all about how thousands work in Latin.
The singular mille is an undeclinable adjective, the plural milia is a third declension noun.
When you are counting the youth, with mille the young are ...
- 111k
9
votes
What does "angelorum planta agmini" mean?
The only way I can interpret this is as follows, although I am not certain:
[Maria, you are] an offshoot to the train of angels.
So planta is like the tendril of a larger thing, or like a foot ...
- 19.8k
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