21 votes
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Latin word for "code" or "program" (the verb)

For almost twenty years, the de facto standard for Latin technology vocabulary has been the Vocabula computatralia. You can and should use and peruse it for all types of programming-related vocabulary,...
cmw's user avatar
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21 votes

What would be a "night owl" in Latin?

The verb lucubrare means (OLD definition 1) 'To work by lamplight (i.e. late at night), "burn the midnight oil."' For example, Pliny uses this verb in letter 3.5 to talk about his uncle's work/study ...
cnread's user avatar
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20 votes
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What did the Romans use to close their letters?

If you have a look at Cicero's letters, many of them do not have any valediction at all. In a pair of letters exchanged between Q. Metellus and Cicero (Cic. Fam. 5.1-5.2), the two men simply stop and ...
cmw's user avatar
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19 votes
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Is there a Latin equivalent for this particular nsfw term?

The place to look these things up is J.N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (1982). There's a discussion of terms for orgasm starting on p. 142. As Manuel says, the most common verb is patrāre, lit. &...
TKR's user avatar
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18 votes

How do you describe someone as a shapeshifter in Latin?

The word you want is versipellis. In a story told by one of the guests at Trimalchio's dinner party in Petronius (Satyricon 62), it's used specifically to describe a werewolf, but it generally means '...
cnread's user avatar
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17 votes

What would be a "night owl" in Latin?

Seneca is your man. In Ep 122 he uses the word lychnobius: one who lives by lamplight. I'll quote the passage in full, because it's so great. Pedonem Albinovanum narrantem audieramus (erat autem ...
Joel Derfner's user avatar
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17 votes
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Is there an English word derived from τάσσω, with a similar meaning of arranging/organising?

The word you are looking for would be taxonomy, from τάσσω, fut. τάξω, to arrange in a certain order, e.g. of troops. Τακτικός is that which is required for the arrangement: the tactics.
JobRozemond's user avatar
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16 votes
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Term for the water/wine ratio chooser?

The Latin term for this is magister bibendi or arbiter bibendi, or "master of drinking." Here's some context: After a roll of the dice, a magister bibendi was chosen. By appointing a certain ...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
16 votes
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What's the Latin word for "jade"?

From my googling so far, it appears that jade did not reach Ancient Rome, and classical Latin has no word for it. Possibly Pliny mentioned it in the Naturalis Historia, but he mentioned a number of ...
Ben Kovitz's user avatar
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16 votes
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Was there a word which meant roughly the same thing as "nerd" or "geek" does today?

Perhaps graeculus, often translated as Greekling? It refers to Greeks who held positions of some import in Roman society due to their education and higher learning yet were considered too Greek to ...
Penelope's user avatar
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15 votes
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How can I say "undo" in Latin?

You could use retexo, literally "unweave, unravel", but also used to mean the below: B. Trop., to break up, cancel, annul, reverse It depends a little bit on the context, though, what the best ...
Cerberus's user avatar
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15 votes

Is there a word for ephemeral but meaning lasting one night?

While Greek ἐφήμερος (ephēmeros) literally means "for one day", it was often used metaphorically to refer to anything that lasts a short time. For example, mortals were ephēmeroi in the eyes ...
Draconis's user avatar
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14 votes
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What is the most neutral word for "shield"?

Clipeus was originally a round, metal shield. It is fairly common. Scutum was originally a long, oval wooden shield with iron fittings and covered with leather, used by soldiers. It is also used for ...
Cerberus's user avatar
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14 votes
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What Latin word could I use to refer to a grocery store?

The word to use is probably macellum. Lewis & Short offers: macellum, i (macellus, i, m., Mart. 10, 96, 9), n. root μαχ-; cf. Gr. μάχομαι, to fight; cf. μάχαιρα, μάχη, and mactāre; prop. butcher'...
Joel Derfner's user avatar
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14 votes
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How To Say "-able" in Latin

As brianpck mentioned, the English suffix "-able" is borrowed from Latin. The rules for applying it in Latin are more transparent than the English alteration between "-able" and "-ible". EDIT: And are ...
Draconis's user avatar
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14 votes

Is there a Latin word for 225th anniversary?

"Bicentennial" is not actually Latin; it's just English. It doesn't even come from a Latin word. In particular, bicentennial is an Americanism, and the more common word in England was (is ...
cmw's user avatar
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14 votes
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Saying "Goodbye!" to a deceased person

For a famous poetic example, take Catullus, Carmina 101: Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus   advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias, ut te postremo donarem munere mortis   et mutam ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
14 votes
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How would you say "body" as in when stating a law of physics?

Yes, corpus is correct for "body" in the sense used in physics. That is the word Newton used in his laws of motion: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
13 votes
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How would you say "A butterfly is landing on a flower." in Latin?

I would guess what you heard in the song is based on the French verb atterrir. Il atterrira means he/it will land. This verb was invented by the French and has no direct Latin equivalent, as far as I ...
Sebastian Koppehel's user avatar
12 votes
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A good Latin word for "point"

Maybe simpler than you think! The following are extracts from Smith's Latin-English Dictionary (1871), under the head "point": II. Fig., the sting or telling feature of an epigram, etc.:aculeus (a ...
Tom Cotton's user avatar
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12 votes

"All-forgiving" expressed with the omni- prefix

I found two examples (from 1667 and 1709) that uses the first portmanteau that came to my mind: omnimisericors. ...laudo, adoro, & revereor te, Domine DEUS, Omnipotens, Omnimisericors, qui ...
brianpck's user avatar
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12 votes
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Latin words for “engineer”

Besides machinator, I found two words for engineer in classical Latin that are primarily directed towards the devising of buildings and fortifications. aedificator A builder, derived from aedes (...
piscator's user avatar
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12 votes
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A word for bad quality joke

Frigidus / cold can be used metaphorically to describe any kind of speech that seems flat and lifeless, whether it was an attempt at humour or not. But here we see it being applied specifically to ...
Penelope's user avatar
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12 votes

What is "vocabulary" in Latin?

The word 'vocabulary' is derived from vocabulum, meaning a word specific to some particular thing, as distinct from verbum, which is the word in general, and dictum, the spoken word. Cicero (de ...
Tom Cotton's user avatar
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12 votes

What would be a "night owl" in Latin?

I suggest the word nocticola, which literally means "night-dweller". The entry in Lewis and Short describes it as "fond of the night" and gives one use example. Unfortunately the word seems to be ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
12 votes
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What is an eve?

There are three major holidays that come to mind when considering "eve": Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Halloween (All Hallows' Eve). When one looks up those holidays in the Morgan and Silva ...
Sam K's user avatar
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12 votes
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Did the Romans 'tip' for good service?

It seems that corollarium was used in this sense. Lewis and Short describe the original meaning as "money paid for a garland of flowers", but elsewhere it is described more like money put in a ...
Penelope's user avatar
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12 votes

How to translate "what" when used as an ironic interjection

Latin allows the use of "Quid?" in a similar way. See, for instance, Cicero in the First Cataline Oration: Quid? cum te Praeneste Kalendis ipsis Novembribus occupaturum nocturno impetu esse ...
brianpck's user avatar
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12 votes

How to say "black market" in Latin?

According to the Vatican's Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis, parvum verborum novatorum Léxicum: mercato nero [Italian]     mercatūra clandestīna [Latin]
Geremia's user avatar
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12 votes
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Nomen agentis of 'Quaerere'

These agent names are typically derived from the past participle stem. For quarere the participle stem is quaesit-, so we should expect quaesitor. And indeed, quaesitor is an attested word meaning &...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar

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