Quam angusta porta et arta via

Matthew chapter 7 verse 14 states: "Quam angusta porta et arta via quae ducit ad vitam, et pauci sunt qui inveniunt eam" or in English: "How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!"

Superbia in proelia

"Superbia in proelia" is the motto of Manchester City FC; It means: "Pride in battles."  The singular would be: "Superbia in proelio."

proelium, -ii  (nt)  battle

superbia, -ae  (f)  arrogance, pride

Nolite judicare, ut non iudicemini

The Bible advises: "Nolite iudicare, ut non iudicemini" or in English "Judge not, that ye be not judged."  (Matthew Chap7, verse 1) 

Here ut is used in the sense of "so that" or "in order that", hence the verb in its clause is in the subjunctive.

nolite  2nd person plural imperative of nolo

iudicare  infinitive  to judge

iudicemini  2nd person plural present passive subjunctive  you may be judged

Rex Hispaniae abdicaturus

I saw the headline Rex Hispaniae abdicaturus on Nuntii Latini and thought that it was an excellent example of the use of the future active participle.  The meaning of course is: "The king of Spain (is) about to abdicate / intends to abdicate."

Vesicae Aliae

The vesica urinaria and the vesica biliaris are, of course, the (urinary) bladder and the bile gland. 

Vesica Piscis

The vesica piscis is a shape that is the intersection of two circles with the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the perimeter of the other.  Vesica piscis is Latin for "the bladder of a fish."

piscis, is  (m)  fish
vesica,ae  (f)  bladder, balloon

I returned and saw under the sun

One of my favourite passages in the Bible is Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 11, which reads in English:

^"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."

The equivalent Latin is:

"verti me alio vidique sub sole nec velocium esse cursum nec fortium bellum nec sapientium panem nec doctorum divitias nec artificum gratiam sed tempus casumque in omnibus"

Pharos, Phari

Pharos, Phari (f) is the Latin name of the island at Alexandria on which Alexander the Great's successors the first two Ptolemys had a giant lighthouse built and of that lighthouse itself.  It is also by extension the Latin word for a lighthouse.  See the wikipedia entry Lighthouse of Alexandria for a short history of the Pharos.

Pharos is the origin of the cognate words for a lighthouse in several languages including in Greek (φάρος), Persian (Fānūs - فانوس), many Romance languages such as French (phare), Italian and Spanish (faro), Romanian (far) and Portuguese (farol), and even some Slavic languages like Bulgarian (far).

Ferveant Opera

"Ferveant opera" is the motto of the small town of Armadale in West Lothian.  According to the Armadale website it means: "May their works flourish".  The dictionary gives ferveo, fervere, ferbui to boil, burn; fig. to rage, bustle, be agitated.  Personally, I would have thought that "May their works flourish" would translate to something like: "floreant opera".  floreo, florere, florui  means among other things to blossom, flower and figuratively to flourish.

Both ferveo and floreo are second conjugation verbs, hence the present subjunctives with the vowel "a" inserted.

Universitas sedis sapientiae

This simple motto - "Universitas sedis sapientiae is associated with Sophia University in Japan, which was founded by the Jesuits in 1913.  It means: university of the seat of wisdom.

Interestingly, the phrase "sedes sapientiae" is a devotional title of Mary the mother of Jesus meaning simply seat of wisdom and also a type of icon.

sedes, -is (f) seat

sedeo, sedere, sedi, sessum  to sit

Stars & Constellations

The stars of the main asterism within each constellation have been assigned Greek letters usually in approximate order of their brightness.  (This is known as Bayer designation, after Johann Bayer who introduced it in his1603 star atlas Uranometria.)  Thus the brightest star in the constellation Orion can be called Beta Orionis and Alpha Orionis respectively, although they are better known as Rigel and Betelgeuse.

The interesting point for the study of Latin is that each constellation has a Latin or New Latin name, and the stars are designated using the genitive case of the constellation's name.  For example:

Libra - The Scales,  Alpha Librae
Taurus - The Bull,    Alpha Tauri (Aldebaran)
Leo - The Lion,  Alpha Leonis (Regulus)

Where the constellation name is plural, the same rule applies.

Gemini - The Twins,  Beta Geminorum (Pollux)
Pisces - The Fishes,   Alpha Piscium

Nihil impossibile erit vobis

"Nihil impossibile erit vobis" is the motto appearing on bank notes issued by Ulster Bank.  It means simply: "Nothing will be impossible for you."

Quocunque jeceris stabit

"Quocunque jeceris stabit" is the motto of the Isle of Man.  In English the meaning is "Whereever you throw it, it will stand."  It is believed to allude to the triskelion or three legs on the Manx coat of arms. 

The standard Latin spelling is "Quocumque ieceris stabit."

quocumque  whithersoever

ieceris  is  2nd person singular perfect subjunctive active of
iacio, -ere, ieci, iactum  vi  to throw

stabit  is 3rd person singular future indicative active of
sto, stare, steti, statum  vt  to stand

Vade ergo ..

Ecclesiastes, chapter 9, verse 7 reads: "Vade ergo et comede in laetitia panem tuum et bibe cum gaudio vinum tuum quia Deo placent opera tua."  In English that is: "Go then, and eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with gladness: because thy works please God."

Vade, comede and bibe are 2nd person plural imperatives.

Sine II

The Latin word sine is the source of the following cognate words:

in French  sans  without  eg  sans argent  penniless

in Italian  senza  without  eg  senza carni  without meat

in Spanish  sin  without  eg  sin gas  without gas


& surprisingly in English  sans  without.

William Shakespeare used the word sans in his All the world's a stage monologue:

... Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Sine

The preposition sine means without.  Sine governs the ablative.  eg

sine invidia  without envy
sine ira  without anger
sine mora  without delay
sine pecunia  without money

sine dubio  without doubt
sine loco et anno  without the place and year

sine prole  without offspring

sine ictu  without a blow

sine die  without a day
sine spe  without hope, without expectation

Sine qua non literally means without which not.  If something is sine qua non it is necessary.

Lex Parsimoniae

Lex Parsimoniae is more commonly known in English as Occam's Razor (also spelt Ockham's Razor), after the medieval philosopher William of Ockham who made great use of this methodological principle.There are several Latin formulations of Occam's Razor including:

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. (Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.)

Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate. (Plurality should not be posited without necessity.)

Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora. (It is futile to do with more things that which can be done with fewer.)

Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate (Plurality must never be posited without necessity.)

Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius

Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius means: "Whom God wishes to destroy, he first drives mad."

In English, we are more familiar with the plural version that appears in Longfellow's poem The Masque of Pandora: "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."

Rex, Regis - a Third Declension Noun with Genitive Plural in -um

Rex, regis (m) king - is a third declension noun with its genitive plural ending in -um. It is declined as follows:

rex
rex
regem
regis
regi
rege

reges
reges
reges
regum
regibus
regibus

Most increasing (masculine & feminine) third declension nouns, which have more syllables in the genitive singular than the nominative singular, are declined in the same way.  Examples include:

iudex, iudicis (c) judge
lex, legis (f) law
leo, leonis (c) lion
flos, floris (m) flower
miles, militis (m) soldier

Nolo Contendere

Nolo contendere is an alternatively plea allowed in US federal and state laws.  The literal meaning is: "I do not wish to contend."  It has the same effect as a guilty plea in the particular criminal trial, but may have different consequences in subsequent civil cases and criminal trials.  Wikipedia explains it a little more.

nolo  I do not wish (the verb is nolle  not to wish, to be unwilling)

Evacuavi quae erant parvuli III

In the phrase cum essem parvulus (when I was a child), the conjunction cum takes a verb in the subjunctive, whereas in the phrase quando factus sum vir (when I became a man), the conjunction quando takes an indicative verb.

Evacuavi quae erant parvuli II

There are seven verbs in this short passage.  All are first person singular except erant, and except essem all are indicative.  The first four referring to the earlier "when I was a boy" are in the imperfect, the next two referring to "when I became a man" are in the perfect and the final verb is again in the imperfect.

essem  1st person singular imperfect subjunctive of esse to be

loquebar  1st person singular imperfect of the deponent vert loquor, loqui, locutus to speak

sapiebam  1st person singular imperfect of sapio, -ere, -ivi, -ui

cogitabam  1st person singular imperfect of cogito, -are, -avi, -atum to think

factus sum  1st person singular perfect passive of  facio, -ere, feci, factum

evacuavi  1st person singular perfect active

erant  3rd person plural imperfect of esse to be

Ne Quid Nimis

Ne quid nimis is another excellent motto.  I saw it on a bottle Heverlee_Lager and looked it up on wikipedia.  It is apparently the motto of the Abbey of Premontre in Leuven in Belgium with which the beer is associated.  The meaning of ne quid nimis is: "nothing to excess".


ne  adv  not
nimis  adv  too much, very much

Evacuavi quae erant parvuli

Here is the famous verse 11 of chapter 13 of First Corinthians, which in English starts "When I was a child" and ends "I put away childish things".  In Latin it reads:

Cum essem parvulus,
loquebar ut parvulus,
sapiebam ut parvulus,
cogitabam ut parvulus,
quando factus sum vir,
evacuavi quae erant parvuli.

In English, this is:

"When I was a child, 
I spoke as a child, 
I understood as a child, 
I thought as a child. 
But, when I became a man, 
I put away childish things."

parvulus, -i  (m)  child  [from adj  parvulus  very small,  from adj  parvus  small]

Dominus Anulorum

Dominus Anulorum is, of course, the Latin for "Lord of the Rings".  It is easy enough to translate the title of this epic into Latin; the story itself is another matter.  Whilst Lord of the Rings has not been translated into Latin yet, The Hobbit has as Hobbitus Ille.

anulus, -i  (m)  ring
draco, -onis  (m)  dragon
magus, -i  (m)  wizard
nanus, -i  (m)  dwarf
Terra Media  Middle Earth