Latin Translation

Te saluto.

More suggestions (this post will be updated many times):

• Affably Evil – Nefarius Affibiliter
• All There in the Manual – In Enchiridio Praesens Omnia
• Alpha Bitch – Canicula Princeps
• Anti-Hero – Homo Antiheroicus
• Ax-Crazy – Delirus Ad Secure
• Back from the Dead – Resurrectus
• Beware the Nice Ones – Caveat Lepidos
• Beyond the Impossible – Ultra Impossibile
• Big Damn Heroes – Magni Heroici Damnati
• Bishōnen – Homo Effeminatus
• Bittersweet Ending – Finis Semidulcis
• Blatant Lies – Mentiti Manifesti
• Body Horror – Terror Corporis
• Brainwashed – Deletus Mentis
• Brainwashed and Crazy – Delirus Deletusque Mentis
• Break the Cutie – Bellulam Frange!
• Fanon – Canon Audientium
• Captain Obvious – Dux Manifestus
• Catchphrase – Sententia Peculiaris
• Character Development – Incrimentum Personae
• Comically Missing the Point – Causativo Ignorare Ridicule
• Crapsack World – Mundus Sordidus (or maybe perhaps "Mundus Abjectus"?)
• Curb-Stomp Battle – Proelium Legionis Unius
• Dead Baby Comedy – Comoedia Infantuli Mortui
• Deadpan Snarker – Insultor Remissus
• Department of Redundancy Department – Ministerius Nimietatis Ministerius
• Deus ex Machina – Deus ex Machina
• Downer Ending – Finis Infelix (or perhaps maybe "Finis Miser" or "Finis Maesta"?)
• The Dragon – Draco
• Eldritch Abomination – Abominamentum Eldritici
• I Knew It! – Eum Scivi!
• Everythings Better With Princesses – Cum Principissis Omnia Melius
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin – Fidelis Titulo
• Expy – Effigies Personae (any better ideas?)
• Fan Nickname – Agnomen Audientium
• Fanservice – Ad Audientes Appellatio
• Ms. Fanservice – Quae Ad Audientes Appellat
• The Hero – Heroicus
• The Lancer – Dexter
• The Big Guy – Musculus
• The Smart Guy – Sapiens
• The Chick – Femina
• The Heart – Cor
• Flanderization – Mos Unus Personam Envincit
• Breaking the Fourth Wall – Rumpere Murum Quartum
• No Fourth Wall – Quarto Sine Muro
• Freudian Excuse – Excusatus Freudensis
• Genki Girl – Puella Enthusiastica
• Genre Savvy – Callidus Generis

edited 18th Nov '11 10:01:08 PM by IuraCivium

For Breaking the Fourth Wall, perhaps Dilapidare Murum Quartum?

@lura-Ah, thanks. If those are for intended for only one person, do they change?

@dRoy: To put it simply: Yes.

Latin grammar works very differently than English grammar does when it comes to verbs.

English really only has four case endings as far as verbs go: -s/-es, -d/-ed, -n/-en, and -ing.*

Furthermore, there's only two main forms between singular and plural; English doesn't really distinguish between persons with respect to verbs, although it kind of does, but... well, just look at the chart:

Latin, however, is very, very dependent upon case endings. Tense, number, mood, voice, almost everything can change depending on which ending you use.

Using "to love" again:

(Some of those vowels are supposed to be long, but since this is not supposed to be a comprehensive and authoritative grammar lesson, I took the lazy way out and omitted the macrons.)

And this is just the present tense. To say "I was loving," you'd say amabam; "I loved / have loved" is amavi; "I was loved" is amatus sum (Latin does use forms of "to be" as helping verbs in some cases)... I could name more, but for the sake of time I won't.

...And this is just for the indicative mood. For the subjunctive, you have to learn a completely new series of endings for every person, tense, and number. It's really difficult to keep it all straight (unless of course you grew up learning it naturally, but no one is alive anymore who truly speaks Latin as their native language). Fortunately there's some general patterns that apply pretty much across the board, so you don't have to actually memorize ungodly long lists of endings. (For instance, first person verbs will almost always end with an -o or an -m in the active voice.)

Imperative mood, thankfully, is very simple. You really only have two forms to worry about, the singular (command given to one person) and the plural (command given to two or more people) since imperative by default is generally always second person (except when we get into future tense, but that's outside of the scope of this little mini-lecture).

edited 19th Nov '11 12:35:52 PM by Specialist290

......Wow, now my head hurts.

^^ That's why I laughed so hard (and gave it a Made Of Win) when I read the hottip in the description of Genius Loci:

Is it permitted that we start translating some of these pages into Latin? Also, how do we handle titles of works?

Titles of works stay in the original language, just in the Lat. namespace.

And yes, go ahead and start translating articles if you want to. Remember that the information is the important part, not staying as close as possible to the English. In other words, translate for the sense, not for the English phrasing. Like you did when you turned The Big Guy into "Musculus". It's not a direct, literal translation, but it carries the sense of "The member of the group who is most likely to rely on their physical strength or size" better than a more literal translation would.

edited 20th Nov '11 6:41:37 PM by Madrugada

If we keep the normal name for them, do we keep (for example) Swedish works like The Seventh Seal as "Det Sjunde Inseglet"?

Apologies over not being able to get the proofreading done over the weekend. Real-life events sort of took the wind out of my sails for any work that isn't essential to my life or education.

Still, since we're on Thanksgiving break starting tomorrow, I'll see if I can't carve some time out of my schedule then.

^^ You could certainly make a redirect for The Seventh Seal from the Swedish name. But in that case, it was released in the English-speaking part of the world as "The Seventh Seal", and that's the name most people know it by. If you wanted to make a Latin page for the Winnie The Pooh books, using Winnie il Pooh would be acceptable, because there actually is a translation of it into Latin by that name.

I'm going to propose the following guidelines for media titles:

1. If there is a Latin translation extant, we use whatever name the translator did as the primary name. (This would probably best apply to such things as The Bible (Biblia Sacra), classical Greek works translated into Latin such as Plato's Republic - itself the Latin title - and the aforementioned translation of Winnie The Pooh).
2. If the original title of the work itself is in Latin, we use that as the primary title.
3. If the original publisher has created an alternate title in Latin him- or herself (as I believe is the case for Mahou Sensei Negima), we use that as the primary title.
4. Otherwise, we use whatever the primary title is in the language of origin, possibly with either an English or a translated Latin redirect.

However, I'd prefer we hold off on translating full media pages until we've gotten some of the trope pages translated first.

edited 21st Nov '11 8:21:06 PM by Specialist290

Graaagh...

Well, I went up to my grandparents' for Thanksgiving and went and forgot my broadband adapter for my laptop. I'm using my uncle and aunt's wifi hotspot now, but this is going to put a damper on comms for a bit.

While I've got access now, I'm going to copy-paste the current list (including Iura's newest stuff) into my laptop, then proofread it while I have some downtime. Then I'll post my suggestions here once I'm back with regular access.

EDIT: Actually, I was pondering two new ones fairly recently:

• Authority Equals Asskicking: De Auctoritate, Vis
• Asskicking Equals Authority: De Vi, Auctoritas

edited 24th Nov '11 9:31:23 AM by Specialist290

I'm sorry, guys. Some Real Life issues have come up, and at the moment they take priority over my hobbies and side projects. I'll try to get involved again when they're resolved, but I don't think I can offer anymore than a few cursory ideas at this point in time.

I also apologize for the triple post, but I figured this was important enough to merit a separate post of its own.

edited 26th Nov '11 5:40:15 PM by Specialist290

I realize this is very late, but the trope "Magic A is Magic A" should be translated as "Magia A est magia A". I am aware that the verb usually comes at the end of the sentence in Latin, but "to be" is the only transitive verb that I know of, which means it can go in between, and should be when saying that something is something else.

Besides, "Magia A Magia A Est" is a bit confusing. It almost looks like you mistranslated, or forgot to decline the noun.

I realize this might be a little bit off-topic for the thread's purpose, but can someone help me translate "Because it is necessary" (as in "we do it because it is necessary") into Latin? Google quibbles between quia est necessarium and quia est necesse.

Sorry for such a late reply, and I don't know if it's relevant anymore. But I'll give this a shot...

For "Because it is necessary", you could say "quia necesse est." Or "quia oportet." Whichever phrase you like better, unless someone more qualified than I disagrees (2 years of college Latin reading and composition).

Hey, guys, this thread appears to have died sometime in December, but I'd be interested in doing some Latin translations if we're still working on this.

Might not be relevant, but is The Aeneid actually used in college Latin classes? It is what the work description says. If so, how much?

Yes to both questions.

It's a very famous, influential work by a very famous, influential poet, and is considered one of THE great epics of the classical period. Granted, we only have a few that survive anyway...

I read it in my fourth semester college Latin experience, for the 'poetry' semester. It's a pretty standard thing for Latin/Classics courses, and a must-read for graduate school in Latin/Classics.

For your second question, it is almost exactly as its description states, with the exclusion of a few minor details. It's an extreme work of propaganda, but...I can kind of see why Virgil asked for it to be burnt when he was on his death-bed. Aeneas is not the sharpest tool in the shed, nor the most honorable (his enemy, Turnus, is arguably more honorable than he), and for the Emperor to claim that Rome was founded from the descendants of this particular Aeneas is...not good for the PR of the Empire.

edited 12th Jul '12 4:31:29 PM by Iulla

Ah, I see. Thank you for the answer.

I was intersted in this work not because it had anything to do with Latin education but because of its place in the western canon. I also had interest in Latin so I was planning to take a class on it in college. Then I read the trope page about it and it says it is used in Latin classes and I was wondering if that information isn't outdated. Seeing how it isn't, it's very fortunate.

Propaganda purpose, huh? I never thought about that before! That's really interesting; it makes me want to read it more. Yeah, I read the Iliad and Aeneas doesn't come off as particularly sharp, although I have to give him a credit for not running away from Achilles. Anyhow, Virgil would have done a humanity great disfavor if he went ahead and just burned it, good riddance.

This might not be relevant as well, but since I can read Latin yet (obviously) so I'm looking for English translation. I have experience with The Odyssey, translated by Robert Fagles so I originally planned to get his translation, but I heard that Robert Fitzegerald's translation is the one used in many schools. Is this true?

edited 12th Jul '12 6:58:06 PM by dRoy

Haha yeah, propaganda is everywhere in the Aeneid! It is an attempt to show Augustus and the Julii in a glorified light, and also to emphasize the traditional Roman virtues (especially that of honoring one's family). Not to mention giving the Romans more inflated egos by having the gods say in several areas that the Romans would be the most devout, virtuous people out of all the people in the world.

And if you've read the Iliad and the Odyssey, you'll recognize a ton of scenes and themes. The Aeneid is basically an amalgam of both epics (parallel characters, scenes, etc.).

As for an English translation, we actually used the Fagles version as a side-reading to the Latin! Out of a few translations that I've read, it was the most enjoyable - though maybe not the most accurate, but that can be said for all translations.

I haven't read or even heard of Fitzgerald's translation, so I really can't give an accurate statement. But looking at the publish date, I'd say that if you choose this version, you're up for some pretty stuffy, outdated English (it was published in 1914, whereas the Fagles translation is from 2006).

edited 12th Jul '12 7:20:20 PM by Iulla

Oh damn it, I already ordered Fitzegerald's translation! Oh well.

Haha well, it should be a good read in any case Feel free to post what you think of it once you read it!