The Latin Problem

So here's the deal, I'm trying to name the abilities my characters have in a story that's a deconstruction of super hero tropes. The names are Latin based, such as "Naturakinesis" or "Sanopotestas". I'll be completely honest, I know hardly anything about Latin and I'm merely using it because Latin words sound fucking amazing.

I intend to have a dimwitted professor that hosts a club on Latin to be the one to come up with the names, and have one of my characters lampshade how unoriginal it is, with them saying the only benefit of naming powers after a dead language is Rule of Cool.

Is it too...cliche though, even if you poke fun at it? I'm also having difficulty knowing if I'm using Latin correctly. For example, "sanopotestas". I intend for it to mean "the ability to heal" but I'm not sure if that's what it actually says in Latin. Again, the character would point out that "Latin doesn't work that way".

But will lampshading my lack of Latin knowledge and love of Rule of Cool get me off the hook for some neat sounding powers, or simply make it seem as if I'm saying "Yeah, I dunno what I'm doing, but fuck you I write what I want."

edited 27th Aug '11 4:40:56 PM by tendollarlameo

All I can say is that if you're going to have these names be coined by a Latin professor in-story, then you had better do the research.

The thing is though, he's not good at his job. Which is why he's getting fired. The course is more of a club, really.

Potestas usually implies a domain of power, rather than a superpower. That said, it's also the root of Potent, meaning powerful.

Either way, there are several words for healing that sound better. I'll go find some and get back soon.

:Healing hands, sanitatem autem, sanando manus :Power{innate personal} Ingenium(knowledge), Peritia, Virtus

And that's with google translate. I like it because it give you the ability to substitute words until you get a good combination.

edited 27th Aug '11 5:12:30 PM by GlassPistol

Even a bad Latin professor ought to be able to handle simple phrases like that, unless he's actually a con artist or something who got his job through outright deceit.

Anyway I know a bit of Latin, so:

Power (=strength): vis (pl vires) is probably the best word. However, in terms of healing or such, you probably mean power = dominion over something/the power to do something, in which case potestas is precisely the right word; the possibly-cooler-sounding synonym is imperium.

edited 27th Aug '11 6:18:36 PM by jewelleddragon

I'd say that if you want typical Dog Latin, the best way to generate it is the way that people who genuinely don't know Latin tend to do it:

1. Get a Latin/English dictionary (or use a decent English-to-Latin online translator (William Whitaker's Words is excellent for the purpose.
2. Enter the English word you want to translate
3. Pick the offered option that sounds coolest (This is why I suggest William Whitakers Words — it offers a list of synonyms and words with the same base meaning but different connotations like this:

probo, probare, probavi, probatus: VERB, let; show to be real/true; examine/test/try/prove/demonstrate; get accepted;

demitto, demittere, demisi, demissus VERB drop, let fall; sink; send/cast/go/flow/float/slope down; flow/shed/let (blood);

depleo, deplere, deplevi, depletus VERB rain/draw off, empty out; bleed/let (blood); relieve (of); exhaust; subtract;

abloco, ablocare, ablocavi, ablocatus VERB place a contract for (work), hire; let/lease/rent (house);

alloco, allocare, allocavi, allocatus VERB stow; hire; let;)

1. Disregard case and declension. Use the ending that sounds coolest.
2. String them together into your Dog Latin phrase.

edited 27th Aug '11 6:30:14 PM by Madrugada

He took control over the club because the Latin professor in charge of it is badly injured(which plays into the story)

Thanks! :D