Wednesday, 3 September 2014

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

Tuesday, 2 September 2014

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

Friday, 29 August 2014

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."

Sunday, 17 August 2014

Vesicae Aliae

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

Saturday, 16 August 2014

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

Friday, 15 August 2014

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"

Thursday, 14 August 2014

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).