21
votes
Accepted
What is the process for translating modern words like "tablet" or "smartphone" into Latin?
Basically, your second option is correct. There is the Vatican's Lexicon Recentis Latínitátis, referred to in the comment, but its approach to Latin is very idiosyncratic; debates over neologisms ...
- 16.5k
18
votes
Accepted
What are the differences between the words "QUASI", "HYPER", and "PSEUDO"?
In Latin, quasi is a contraction of quam sī, "as if".
Assimulabo, quasi nunc exeam.
I'm going to pretend as if I'm just leaving.
With a noun, it tends to mean "almost".
…quasi ...
- 67k
12
votes
Wifi or Wireless fidelity in Latin?
The name Wi-Fi never was an abbreviation of "wireless fidelity".
Therefore I see two approaches to naming it in Latin:
Use Wi-Fi as a name.
Express the idea "wireless network access" somehow.
In the ...
- 114k
11
votes
A plausible technical term for 'boiler'
You've probably already checked here, but Smith's Copious and Critical English-Latin Dictionary offers fornax vaporifer as a "furnace emitting steam", citing Statius' Silvae 1.3.45:
An quae ...
- 15.9k
11
votes
A plausible technical term for 'boiler'
The classical author Vitruvius was familiar with a basic steam turbine, which he describes in De architectura I.VI.2 thus:
Fiunt enim aeoli pilae aereae cavae, - hae habent punctum angustissimum - ...
- 411
10
votes
What is the term for extremely loose Latin word order?
If Latin prose had an "extremely loose word order", which is (generally) not the case, the appropriate linguistic term involved would be "non-configurationality". However, rather than being vaguely ...
- 8,901
9
votes
Accepted
A verb for Googling in Latin
I can think of many ways of going about this, but for such an unapologetically modern idea I think the best approach may be to observe how other related modern languages have solved this problem and ...
- 40.7k
9
votes
A plausible technical term for 'boiler'
A suitable word in Spanish is caldera, which sounded pretty Latin to me. So looking at L&S I finally converged to caldaria. One of its meanings is:
A pot for boiling
Even if you were not ...
- 11.4k
9
votes
Accepted
A plausible technical term for 'boiler'
This kind of boiler is also known as a steam generator, and direct translations from relevant words in other languages are mostly "steam generator" or "steam pot".
One could take for example the ...
- 114k
9
votes
How to download an entire text from Perseus?
I know this question is already (somewhat) answered, but I visited the link in the answer above provided by techvslife and reading through it, I found out that there is now a project called the Scaife ...
- 191
8
votes
Accepted
How to translate "the Force" from Star Wars?
Numen isn't the best without either ignoring the "all around us" aspect or resorting to some discredited twentieth century arguments about the word. Still, as a means of personal power in a Jedi, I ...
cmw♦
- 54.6k
8
votes
Accepted
What is "express" in Latin?
David Morgan's lexicon (warning: big file) suggests citatus, -a, -um for "express" in this context. His suggestions for "express train" are:
tramen* citatum, hamaxostichus* ...
- 40.7k
8
votes
Accepted
An error message in Latin for my programming language
I suggest numerus pravus for 'incorrect' and numerus nimius for 'too large'.
- 18.1k
8
votes
Wifi or Wireless fidelity in Latin?
To me, wifi feels like a word that the Romans would have just borrowed rather than used their own phrase for. If you swap out the W for a V and treat it like a third declension noun, you get vifis as ...
- 8,530
7
votes
Is there an operating system entirely in Latin?
Regarding Linux, there seem to have never existed such OS (but non existence hard to prove). As this is an open-source OS, it is based on collaboration, and as such, translation are made by ...
- 12.4k
7
votes
Accepted
Toilet paper orientation
Fieri solet ut charta mundatoria sit in capulo binis modibus ponenda. In vulgus gratus est modus quo charta procidit summo de volumine. In altero modo retro decidit charta iuxta parietem.
I think ...
- 18.1k
7
votes
Accepted
How does a computer crash in Latin?
This was cited in the answer to a recent question as the de facto standard for Latin technology vocabulary by C. M. Weimer.
Acording to it, the verbs corruo and collabor are enough for a soft crash. ...
- 11.4k
7
votes
A plausible technical term for 'boiler'
A caminus (from Greek κάμινος) is a furnace, so another possibility is a caminus vaporalis.
- 40.7k
7
votes
What is a "robot" in Latin?
What's the closest word Classical Latin (Greek?) would have used for mobile machines, even if they don't have a human shape?
(NB: this answer is adapted slightly from another answer I gave here)
I ...
- 8,711
6
votes
Accepted
Translating "machines" and "people"
Machina is indeed a good translation for "machine".
In plural it is machinae, so this translation is correct.
You have to be careful with the English word "people".
If you refer to a people (where "...
- 114k
6
votes
Accepted
What is "user account" in Latin?
After searching for classical words that were used to similar effect, I have two suggestions for the word account: breviarium and summarium.
My preference is for breviarium, which means "a summary, ...
- 40.7k
6
votes
Accepted
What is information technology in Latin?
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm not a huge fan of Vicipædia, and this is part of the reason why. Technologia informátiónis is fine as far as a literal translation of the words, but it feels very un-...
- 16.5k
6
votes
How to download an entire text from Perseus?
I presume that you've been clicking the orange XML button directly below the chunk of text.
If you look beneath that, in the gray box that gives licensing info, the second paragraph has an XML ...
- 20.1k
6
votes
What is a "robot" in Latin?
The word was invented by Karel Capek's brother in 1920 and used in his novel (in Czech), of which the title is translated into English as 'Rossum's Universal Robots'. It suggests (forced) labour ...
- 18.1k
6
votes
Accepted
What did the Romans think about new technology?
The Roman aqueduct is considered one of the greatest inventions of the ancient world. Commenting on this technology, Cicero had the following to say:
Adde ductus aquarum, derivationes fluminum, ...
- 10.7k
5
votes
What is information technology in Latin?
I ended up having to write "information technology" in a formal context in Latin, and I chose technologia informatica.
It may not be as natural in Latin as the suggestions Joel gives in his answer, ...
- 114k
5
votes
Latin word for 'the web' or 'Internet'
The word I have always used and often seen in use for the internet is interrete.
The third declension neuter rete means "net".
A rete can be used for catching animals or fighting on the arena.
The ...
- 114k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between "return" and "yield"?
How about redde for "return" and ede for "yield"?
These keywords are orders ("do so and so"), and therefore I find imperatives most natural.
The verb reddere means giving back, and I think that ...
- 114k
5
votes
An error message in Latin for my programming language
I would suggest:
In case the numeral is incorrect (e.g., IVI)
numerus falsus
... or is too large
numerus magnus nimis
Perhaps you can also add error: or erratum: at the beginning of the ...
- 12.4k
4
votes
What is "user account" in Latin?
Tabula is good, but ratio is better usage. Accounts, of course, come from banking language, and ratio is one of the most natural ways to express such a term in Latin:
Relation, reference, ...
cmw♦
- 54.6k
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