50
votes
Accepted
Why is "ille" used in Winnie ille Pu and Hobbitus Ille?
It's true that in Classical Latin, ille is a demonstrative pronoun (corresponding to that), not an article; indeed, articles as we know them in English do not exist in Classical Latin. However, that'...
- 11.3k
17
votes
Accepted
Ave Verum Corpus: why ablative?
The subject is latus. Definition 6 in OLD is most relevant here:
6 (of solid objects, usu. w. abl.) To be bathed or soaked (in a fluid specified or implied), run, stream, overflow, etc.)
For ...
- 19.3k
16
votes
Accepted
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen...": A Translation Problem from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"
It seems to me that Quirites stands for “Romans” here, and cives for “countrymen” (i.e., fellow citizens).
There is not really a succint Latin term for “countryman,” but civis is suggested by Smith &...
15
votes
Accepted
Why was ante tribus translated as "fifteen years ago"?
Lustrum has several meanings, but that which applies here is the period of five years which elapsed from census to census. The phrase is actually lustris ante tribus, or 'three lustra ago'.
A good ...
- 18k
14
votes
"Solvitas perambulum": Is this real Latin?
This seems to be a distortion of the phrase solvitur ambulando "it is solved by walking". As fdb says, neither word is correct Latin.
- 30.9k
13
votes
Accepted
Why *In medias res* and not *In media res*?
You are confusing two words:
The noun medium means "center".
The adjective medius means "central".
In this idiom one goes into "central things".
The word res is feminine (the singular nominative and ...
- 111k
12
votes
Accepted
'idem hercle esset' meaning?
"By Hercules!" "Indeed!" - Common in classical and post-classical Latin.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DHercules
- 17.6k
12
votes
Accepted
Why is "Onus" in the Dative Case?
The oneri is a dative of purpose or dativus finalis.
A simple example of such a dative is id mihi usui est, "it is of use to me".
There are often two datives: the beneficiary and the ...
- 111k
12
votes
Accepted
How should "Haec Fracastorius." be translated?
Haec is neuter plural, and there is an implied dicit: Haec dicit Fracastorius, "F. says these things".
I don't read "So much for Fracastoro" as necessarily dismissive: it's just a ...
- 30.9k
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
12
votes
Accepted
Translation of “in” as “and”
The passage comes from Cic. Fam. 9.4, namely from a letter to Varro.
Apparently others have translated as you would expect:
If you have a garden in your library, everything will be complete (...
- 11.1k
11
votes
Accepted
How do you parse "futurum est" in Matthew 2:13?
Futurum est is a future active periphrastic form. It is built from futurum, the future active participle of sum (here in the neuter), which by itself means "going to be, about to be". With the ...
- 30.9k
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&...
- 65.1k
11
votes
Accepted
"Esto mihi in rupem praesidii et in domum munitam..."
This is most certainly a Hebraism. Compare to 2 Sam 7:14:
ego ero ei in patrem et ipse erit mihi in filium
In the Hebrew, we have:
אֲנִי֙ אֶהְיֶה־לּ֣וֹ לְאָ֔ב וְה֖וּא יִהְיֶה־לִּ֣י לְבֵ֑ן
...
- 39.5k
11
votes
Accepted
How to translate these few lines? Met. 1.94–96
Let me offer a translation attempt piece by piece.
My translations are not perfectly literal, but the way I build it up should clarify what it each Latin word does.
I reordered the words to make the ...
- 111k
11
votes
Accepted
How to say "I am falling in love with this language"?
Latin has an inchoative suffix -sc- which indicates that a certain state is beginning, and which is quite productive (rubesco, senesco, reconvalesco, ...). And indeed, there is the verb amasco – "...
- 3,004
11
votes
How to say "I am falling in love with this language"?
Oxford [English-to-Latin section (under "fall")], offers "adamo" = "to fall in love with", taking the accusative case. (In the Latin-to-English the definition of "...
- 8,390
11
votes
Accepted
Help me understand this Latin "Dad Joke"
In a footnote to his 1891 translation of the relevant sentence (page 294), J. S. Watson says this:
2 Video me a te circumveniri. Toup, in his Appendix to Theocritus, suggests that we should read ...
- 19.3k
11
votes
"Audi nos" translation problem
Nos can be either "we" or "us." The nominative and accusative for it are the same.
It's not that different from the English "you", which can be the subject (vos auditis, &...
cmw♦
- 52.2k
11
votes
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen...": A Translation Problem from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar"
Adding on to Sebastian Koppehel's answer:
The tricolon*, a statement with three parallel sections, was a famous and much-vaunted device in Classical rhetoric (compare Caesar's legendary vēnī, vīdī, ...
- 65.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Translation: «impulsi sunt et ipsi Christi amore»
This is the big question! Genitives can be either subjective or objective, and sometimes it's impossible to know which one a genitive is.
Subjective genitives are the subject of the genitive. If this ...
cmw♦
- 52.2k
10
votes
Accepted
Is the Spanish translation of the "Exultet" chant literal?
You are correct to say that this is not a 'literal' translation. Turba is a feminine singular noun, and exultet is rightly singular. I'm not sure coro is the right word, though. Interestingly, turba ...
cmw♦
- 52.2k
10
votes
Is Thomas Hobbes' translation of "nosce te ipsum" as "read thyself" valid?
As @Cerberus says, it's an unusual but valid translation.
I think, however, it becomes clearer when one adds the beginning of the paragraph, so that it reads:
There is a saying much usurped of ...
- 16.4k
10
votes
Accepted
Can "to him(self)" be an implied phrase for dative or ablative case? E.g., Acts 20:1
I think you're overthinking this.
It sounds pretty reasonable to me to translate vocare as "to call to oneself".
It depends on context whether it makes sense to add a prepositional phrase in ...
- 111k
10
votes
"Solvitas perambulum": Is this real Latin?
This is fake Latin, but formed from two genuine words: solvo means “to release, set free, solve” and perambulo means “to walk through”; but neither “solvitas” nor “perambulum” means anything in Latin. ...
- 17.6k
9
votes
Accepted
"Stantes erant pedes nostri..."
Forgive me if I'm missing something, but:
I think your issue here may be with the English rather than the Latin. To say that something "was wont to do" something ("wont" with an o and no apostrophe ...
- 16.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Dominus illuminatio mea
The verb est is omitted but implied. The motto is taken from the start of Psalm 27 (or 26):
Dominus illuminatio mea et salus mea; quem timebo?
Dominus protector vitae meae; a quo trepidabo?
The Lord ...
- 15.9k
9
votes
Accepted
What would "agenda" be in Ancient Greek?
The closest Greek equivalent to a Latin gerundive is one of the verbal adjectives ending in -τέος (formed on the aorist passive stem). Both ποιέω and πράττω – unlike ἄγω, as you note – are generally ...
- 19.3k
9
votes
Why is "sic semper erat, et sic semper erit" translated this way?
Translation generally isn't a one-to-one mapping between Latin words and English words. While sīc is often glossed as "thus", you might also translate it as "like this", or "...
- 65.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Unsure why the accusative relative pronoun is used? [Tacitus Annals 2.24]
I think corpora equorum must be the subject of the clause, with quos its object, and the verb tolerare being used with the following sense per Lewis and Short:
Transf., to support a person or thing, ...
- 27.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible