De mortuis nil nisi bonum

The recent death of a neighbour, who incidentally was a good egg, brought the phrase de mortuis nil nisi bonum to mind.

Aurorae

There are two auroras in astronomy: the aurora borealis or northern lights and the aurora australis or southern lights.  The Latin edition of wikipedia gives a much shorter explanation.

aurora, - ae  (f)  dawn, morning; goddess of dawn; the East
auster, -ri  (m)  south wind, south
australis  adj  southern
Boreas, - aw  (m)  north wind, north
occidens, occidentis  (m)  west
oriens,  orrientis  (m)  east

Pro tanto quid retribuamus

Pro tanto quid retribuamus is the motto of the city of Belfast and also of HMS Belfast.  It comes from the Book of Psalms in the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible - psalm 116 verse 12.  It means: "For so much, what shall we repay."

Benedictus benedicat

Benedictus, Benedicat per Jesum Christum Dominum Nostrum is a Latin grace for saying before a meal.  Apparently, it means: "May he who is Blessed bless [this food] through Jesus Christ Our Lord." 
 
Benedicto Benedicatur, per Jesum Christum Dominum Nostrum is the corresponding closing grace.

Silent leges enim inter arma

Silent leges enim inter arma was Cicero's famous observation in Pro Milone.  It means: "Of course, the laws are silent in war."  These days the laws are certainly not silent about war.

Lupus in fabula

Lupus in fabula, which literally means "the wolf in the story", is the Latin equivalent of "talk of the Devil."

Nullius in verba

Nullius in verba is the motto of the Royal Society.  Literally it means "nothing in words".  The essence of the motto is: "Take nobody's word for it."

nullus, nullius (dat -i)  adj  no, none; not, not at all
verbum, -i  (nt)  word

Domus Aurea

The Domus Aurea was a large landscaped palace built for the emperor Nero at the heart of Rome after the great fire in 64AD.

domus, -us  (part 2nd & part 4th declension)  (f) house, home, family
aureus, -a, -um  adj  golden

Ignis aurum probat, miseria fortes viros

"Ignis aurum probat, miseria fortes viros" means "Fire tests gold, misfortune (tests) strong men."  It is clearly an excellent proverb.

ignis, ignis  (m)  fire
aurum, -i  (nt)  gold
miseria, -ae (f)  misery
fortis  adj  strong; brave
vir, viri  (m)  man

probo, -are, -avi, -atum  to approve; to appraise; to prove

Incidentally, the scientific abbreviation for the element gold is Au from aurum.

Sic semper tyrannis

John Wilkes Booth is said to have uttered the words "sic semper tyrannis" immediately after he shot Abraham Lincoln.  The meaning is "Thus always to tyrants".  Tyrannis is the dative plural of tyrannus, -i (m).

Another famous phrase incorporating a dative plural is "Vae victis", which means "Woe to the vanquished".

vae  interj.  woe, alas

O quam cito transit gloria mundi

O quam cito tranist gloria mundi is a phrase in the The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.  It means "Oh, how quickly passes the glory of the world."

A related and rather better known phrase is sic transit gloria mundi, which means "Thus passes the glory of the world."  A variation on that phrase occurs at the end of the science fiction novel A Canticle for Leibowitz.  When the last monk enters the space ship, he pauses in the open hatchway and says sic transit mundum, which means "Thus passes the world".

cito  adv  quickly, soon
sic  adv  thus

Ardens sed virens

Ardens sed virens is another motto which relates to the burning bush in chapter 3 of Exodus.  In this case, it is the motto of Presbyterian Church in Ireland and is translated as burning but flourishing.

Ardens and virens are both present participles.  They decline like third declension adjectives ending in -ns

ardeo, ardere, arsi, arsum  (2nd)  to burn, to be on fire

vireo, virere, virui  (2nd)  to be green, to flourish

Nec tamen consumebatur

Nec tamen consumebatur is the motto of the Church of Scotland.  It means: yet it was not consumed and is an allusion to the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3, verse 2.

nec / neque  adv  not; conj  and not, but not

tamen  adv  however, nevertheless

consumo, -ere, -psi, -ptum  to consume, to eat up, to waste

consumebatur  3rd person singular imperfect passive of consumo

Cave canem and caveat emptor

Both cave in cave canem and caveat in caveat emptor can be translated as beware, and both are forms of the verb of  the second conjugation verb caveo, cavere, ...  However, the two words are very different - the one an imperative and the other a subjunctive:

cave  singular imperative
caveat  3rd person singular present active subjunctive

Turning to the meaning of these phrases, cave canem is, of course, beware of the dog;  Caveat emptor means let the buyer beware.

emptor, emptoris  (m) buyer

Hopefully, that's clear, but how would you say: beware of the buyer?

I.H.S.

Graveyards are often a good place to find Latin inscriptions.  The other day I was wandering through one, when I noticed a tall tombstone with the letters I.H.S. standing out from the top part of the cross.  I assumed that they must mean: in hoc signo vinces (In this sign you conquer). 

Anyway, I looked them up on wikipedia and found the real position is more complicated.  The three letters are more likely to be the Greek letters iota, eta and sigma.  Alternatively, if they are Latin then they may stand for Iesus hominum salvator (Jesus saviour of men).  In either case, they are probably a Christogram.

Cogita mori!

"Cogita mori" is the inscription on a 16th century vanitas ring recently found near the city of Dunfermline by a Dundee metal detector enthusiast.  The skeleton ring is currently being assessed by the Treasure Trove Unit in Edinburgh, but it is hoped that it will be put on display in Dunfermline.  The inscription means: remember death.

Cogita is the imperative active singular of the verb cogito, -are, -avi, -atum, which means: to think.

Mori is the first person singular perfect of the deponent vert morior, mori, mortuus, which means: to die.  So mori means: I died or I have died.

Thus the inscription should really be understood, as the skeleton chiding the wearer of the ring: "Remember, I died."

Cave felem!

Cave canem, which means: beware of the dog, must be one of the best known Latin phrases.  But how do you say: "Beware of the cat"?  Well, beware will be just the same.  Cat is feles, -is (f).  Canem is the accusative singular of canis, -is (m/f) dog.  So I guess beware of the cat must be: "Cave felem!"

Cras amet

This is the start of a couplet in the Pervigilium Veneris.  The full couplet goes:

"Cras amet qui numquam amavit;
Quique amavit, cras amet."

The translation is:

"May he love tomorrow, who has never loved before;
And may he who has loved, love tomorrow also."

Of course, this could just as well be translated with she instead of he.  ie  "May she love tomorrow, ..."

cras  adv.  tomorrow.
amet  3rd person singular present active subjunctive of amo
numquam  adv.  never
amavit  3rd person singular perfect active indicative of amo

cras  adv.  tomorrow
hodie  adv.  today
heri  adv.  yesterday

Umbra solis non aeris

This short phrase comes from a sundial.  "Umbra solis non aeris" means "the shadow of the sun not of the  bronze."

In domo Patris mei

The famous words of John chapter 14 verse 2 start in English: "In my father's house there are many mansions."  In the Latin Vulgate the verse reads:

"In domo Patris mei mansiones multae sunt si quo minus dixissem vobis quia vado parare vobis locum."

Iustitia elevat gentem

A common translation into English of Proverbs 14:34 is "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.  The Latin Vulgate is: "iustitia elevat gentem miseros facit populos peccatum."

Cum sancto

Cum sancto sanctus eris, cum perverso perverteris is a wise proverb.   It means roughly - with the holy man you will be holy, with the wicked man you will be wicked.  Thanks to Laura Gibbs, on whose Bestiaria Latina Blog I found this proverb.  Laura attributes it to Polydorus, however a quick search on Google shows that it comes from 2 Samuel, chapter 22, verses 26 and 27, which in the Latin Vulgate reads:

26. cum sancto sanctus eris et cum robusto perfectus  
27. cum electo electus eris et cum perverso perverteris 

Sopor Aeternus & Saltatio Mortis

Sopor Aeternus, which means eternal sleep, is the apt name of a German dark wave musical project.  Saltatio Mortis, which means dance of death, is a German medieval metal band.

sopor, soporis (m)  sleep; apathy
aeternus adj.  eternal; immortal
saltatio, -onis (f)  dance
mors, mortis (f)  death; corpse.

English words from mors, mortis and from aeternus are not hard to find.  The adjective soporific comes, of course, from sopor, soporis.

Fenestra

Fenestra, -ae (f) meaning window is another Latin word which has passed in to various languages.

Dutch  venster
French  la fenetre (f) [the circumflex on the middle e has been omitted]
German  das Fenster (n)
Italian  finestra (f)
Welsh  ffenestr (f)

The English noun window is, of course, unrelated, however we do have a very specific verb from fenestra - defenestrate, which means to throw a person out of a window.

Amor populi praesidium reginae

Amor populi praesidium reginae is the apt legend on certain of Queen Elizabeth II's coins.  It means: the love of the people is the queen's protection.

Praesidium, -i (n) is a second declension noun, which means garrison or protection.

Schola

Schola, scholae (f)  is an even better example than pons, pontis of a word in Latin being the source of cognate words in several modern languages.  Here are words for school in various European languages including English and German, which are, of course, not Romance languages:

English  school
French  l'ecole (f) [the acute accent on the first e has been omitted]
German  die Schule (f)
Italian scuola (f)
Portuguese  escola (f)
Spanish  escuela (f)

Nisi dominus frustra

Nisi dominus frustra is the motto of the City of Edinburgh.  It means unless the Lord in vain, which is a contraction of 127th Psalm:

Except the Lord build the house, They labour in vain that build it
Except the Lord keep the city, The watchman waketh but in vain.

Nisi is a conjunction meaning unless,  dominus, -i means lord, master, and frustra is an adverb meaning in vain.

Pons, pontis

Pons, pontis (m), as every schoolboy should know, means bridge.  Pons is a good example of how Latin is the source of so many words especially in  the Romance languages.  Below are the words for bridge in several languages:

French  le pont (m)
Italian  il ponte (m)
Portuguese ponte (f)
Spanish el puente (m)
Welsh  pont (f)

Pons is also the source of various places name in Britain.  For example, Pontypool in South Wales and Pontefract, which means broken bridge, in Yorkshire.

Arca, arcus & arx

The three nouns arca, arcus and arx make an interesting little set of partial homophones.  Arca, ae (f) is first declension and means: box, moneybox / purse.  Arcus, -us (m) is fourth declension and means: bow, rainbow, arch, arc.  Arx, arcis (f) is third declension and means: stronghold, summit.  We have several English words from arca and arcus: arc, arch, ark (as in Noah's Ark and Ark of the Covenant).

Ferrum est quod amant

This is Juvenal's cutting comment in his sixth satire about women such as Eppia, the senator's wife who ran away to Egypt with her gladiator-lover.

Ferrum, -i (n) means: iron, a sword, a metal tool.  One translation might be: "It is the weapon that they love" with weapon meaning both the fighting man and his male member.

Anno Decimo ...

The inscription on Admiralty Arch close to Trafalgar Square in London reads: "Anno decimo Edwardi Septimi Regis Victoriae Reginae cives gratissimi MDCCCCX."

Anno decimo Edwardi Septimi Regis means in the tenth year of King Edward the seventh.  Cives gratissimi means the most grateful citizens.  Victoriae Reginae is in the dative and means to or for Queen Victoria.

Tempus fugit irreparablile

Amici fures temporum is far from being the only Latin proverb about time.  Perhaps the best known one of all is tempus fugit irreparabile, which means time flees irretrievably.

Tempus fugit irreparabile and similar sentiments are often inscribed in Latin on sundials.

Amici fures temporum

I can attest to the truth of this proverb: amici fures temporum, which means friends (are) the thieves of time.  These wise words are attributed to the eminent Elizabethan and Jacobian Sir Francis Bacon in his 1605 book The Advancement and Proficience of Learning Divine and Humane.

Amici is the nominative plural of amicus, -i (m), which means friend, and fures is the nominative plural of fur, furis (c) which means thief.  Temporum is the genitive plural of tempus, -i which means time.

Sepulcrum artifis ignoti

I saw this phrase, which translates as "the tomb of the unknown artist", on a postcard the other day.  The picture on the card was of a piece by the artist Grayson Perry.  The work of art was not my taste, however the phrase caught my eye, because it illustrated a simple grammatical observation.

As every student of Latin knows, an adjective must agree with its noun in number, gender and case.  As a consequence the ending on nouns and their accompanying adjectives are quite often the same.  For example, puella pulchra meaning beautiful girl.  However, whilst adjectives must always agree with their nouns, the actual ending expessing this need not be the same.

In the phrase "sepulcrum artifis ignoti", artifis is the genitive singular of a third declension masculine noun artifex, artifis, whilst ignoti is the genitive singular masculine of a second declension adjective ignotus, -a, -um.   Thus although the two words still agree, their ending are different.

Homo homini lupus

The bitter observation "homo homini lupus" translates into English as "Man is a wolf to man."

The pattern in Latin is the same as in asinus asino et sus sui pulcher - the noun first in the nominative (ie subject) case and then in the dative (ie indirect object) case.  Homo, hominis is, of course, a third declension noun same as sus, hence the dative with an -i ending.

Sus sui pulcher

Sus sui pulcher is part of a pithy Latin proverb: "Asinus asino et sus sui pulcher (est)."  The full phrase means: "A donkey (is) beautiful to a donkey, and a pig to a pig."

Asino and sui are the dative singulars of the second declension noun - asinus, -i donkey and the third declension noun sus, suis pig.

Redde Caesari

Jesus, when asked whether it was lawful under Jewish law to pay tax to Caesar, replied with the question "Whose head is on the coin?"  When he was told that it was Caesar's head - ie the head of the Roman emperor, he replied in the King James edition of the Bible "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's."

In Latin, this is "Redde Caesari quae sunt Caesaris, et quae sunt Dei Deo."  This immortal phrase is a simple illustration of how it usually takes less words to say something in Latin than in English; Here ten and sixteen words respectively.

Caesar, Caesaris is a third declension noun.  Caesari is the dative singular - to Caesar, and Caesaris is the genitive singular - of Caesar.

Similarly, Deus, Dei is a second declension noun.  Dei is the genitive singular - of God, and Deo is the dative singular - to God.

Vincit qui se vincit

The motto vincit, qui se vincit means: he conquers, who conquers himself.  Of course, it also means: she conquers, who conquers herself.  That's the beauty of third person singular and plural verb endings in Latin;  They can be masculine, feminine or neuter as the context requires.

Veritas vincit

Veritas vincit, which is the motto of Stonehaven, means simply: truth conquers.  Veritas, which means truth, is unsurprisingly a common word in mottoes.

Esse quam videri

I came across this excellent motto in a museum today.  The translation given for it was "to be rather than to seem."

Latin is a language that is very well suited to mottoes; Japanese is another.  A motto is really an old-fashioned sort of sound bite, which expresses a noble or an inspiring sentiment.

In regione caecorum, rex est luscus.

Erasmus' famous insight is usually given in English as "In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king."  Caecus is a blind man and luscus is a sighted one.

Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant

Scottish history begins with Tacitus and the speech he attributes to Calgacus, which ends thus:

Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

This translates as: "To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

Tweetum facit

Pope Benedict's tweet in Latin inspired me to write a very short letter to three newspapers.  Unfortunately, none of them saw fit to publish it.  Anyway, the dead tree press' loss is the internet's gain, as here is the letter.

Salve,

Et in lingua Latina Pontifex tweetum facit.  Vivat lingua nobilissima.

Vale,

Naturally, Latin translations of Twitter and tweet are not easy to find, so I had to make one up myself.  tweetum is a tweet, and facit means he makes or does.  Thus tweetum facit means he makes a tweet, or more simplyt he tweets.

Si vis pacem, para bellum.

I saw this wise proverb from the fifth century writer Vegetius in a letter in the Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, 27th January.  In Engish, the advice is "If you want peace, prepare for war".  Sadly, the converse is also true, and worryingly relevant to the UK's present circumstances.

vis is the second person singular of the present indicative of the irregular verb volo and means you (s) want.  para is the singular imperative of the verb paro, parare, paravi, paratum to prepare.  It simply means prepare.

Pope Benedict's first tweet in Latin

Back in January, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI added Latin to the list of languages in which he tweeted.  His first tweet in Latin was:

"Unitati christifidelium integre studentes quid iubet Dominus? Orare semper, iustitiam factitare, amare probitatem, humiles Secum ambulare."

Fortunately, the language is relatively simple.  Most of the words even I know, or at least I can make an educated guess.
  
You can read more about this on BBC News website Pope Benedict XVI posts first tweet in Latin.  Also, Harry Mount also discussed it on the Telegraph blog in his piece - The Pope's right - Latin is the perfect language for twitter

Pater Noster

Here is the Lord's Prayer in Latin.  As I already know it in English, it is a very useful short text to memorise to help improve my Latin.
 

Pater Noster
qui es in caelis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in caelo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos
dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem:
sed libera nos a malo.
 

The adverb sicut has a number of translations, but for present purposes "as" or" like" in the context of a comparison will do.

Habemus Papam

Whilst I am not a Roman Catholic, one thing I very much like about the Catholic Church is their continued use of Latin.  When the Cardinals succeeded in electing a new Pope on Thursday, the traditional Latin  announcement was made to the Faithful from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica: 

"Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum... habemus papam!" 

In English translation it is: "I announce to you a great joy... we have a pope!"  Containing just a verb in the first person plural present indicative active and a first declension noun in the accusative singular, the statement habemus papam is well within the understanding of a Latin beginner.

Pro Rege, Lege et Grege

This easily memorable phrase is the motto of Perth Academy in the original Perth in Scotland.  The noble sentiment is: "For the king, the law and the people."

The three nouns rex, lex and grex are all third declension nouns in the ablative singular, hence the e-endings.

Quo Peregrinatur Grex Pastor Secum

I found this phrase while reading about Walter M. Miller Jr.'s excellent science fiction novel A Canticle for Leibowitz on Wikipedia.  Incidentally, there are so many Latin phrases used in this novel that there is a separate entry in Wikipedia  List of Latin phrases in A Canticle for Leibowitz

It means in English: "Whither the flock may wander, let the shepherd [wander] with them."  The useful vocabulary is as follows:

quo   whither (where to)

grex, gregis (m)   flock, herd

pastor, -oris (m)   shepherd

The fact that the word pastor means shepherd explains why some protestant denominations use the word for their ministers.  By the same token grex is the ultimate root of the word congregation.