Topic: Quote in Tech Law: Vehicle Manual

[gog]

On page 80 of the above book the following quote appears as fluff text for a section:

"Visne me currum agere?" - Unknown Passenger in a Roman Chariot
"Neutiquam erro. Carri Cabus Cani veharis posthac." - Answer to Unknown Passenger

Any one got an English translation of it or a source. I feel I should know it, and the Latin scholars I've run it past aren't sure.

[yammahoper]

I get this:

Do you have a map?

I'm not lost.  Next time you will take a bus.

[Defendi]

Man, I was obscure with that one, huh?

[Hurin]

It's a little tricky-- I am guessing it is not classical Latin, so I'm not sure if you will find an English translation on the internet. It reads like a modern person with a moderate knowledge of Latin trying to compose classical Latin.

First, a more literal translation:

"Do you want me to drive?" [literally, to 'do/run the course'].

"By no means do I wander. Henceforth, you, a corn-measure for a dog, will be conveyed in a chariot/wagon'

If I can take some liberties with the translation, it would be something like:

"Do you want me to drive?"
"I'm not lost. Henceforth, you can ride the wagon that carries the dogfood."

[gog]

Many thanks

[yammahoper]

Hurin should be a wise-er elder 

[Hurin]

Hurin should be a wise-er elder 

Your translation wasn't bad-- you got the sense of it. The last sentence was a little tricky too. If you ever need a good Latin dictionary, the Lewis and Short version is online; though it is old and cranky, it's still the best reference for tricky passages. This site also searches a simpler one too: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?redirect=true&lang=Latin 

[Cory Magel]

Just out of curiosity Hurin, how would you translate the following?  I'm curious how well I did on this one from from English to Latin...

Gustatus Lamina Lorica

[Hurin]

Just out of curiosity Hurin, how would you translate the following?  I'm curious how well I did on this one from from English to Latin...

Gustatus Lamina Lorica

Can you give me the whole sentence, Cory? That matters even more than in English. The three words are 'gustatus' (sense of taste or something that has been tasted), 'lamina' (plate) and 'lorica' (cuirass/breastplate). Without knowing the rest of the words in the sentence (or is it a motto?), it is hard to say what case the words are in. Gustatus has to be in the nominative case, I believe, since it is a first/second declension noun (or the past partciple) of the verb gusto. The lamina and lorica are a bit harder though because the 'a' ending could be nominative or ablative, and ablative is a kind of grab-bag case in Latin.

Assuming they are all in the nominative would give you something like, 'Taste is a plate cuirass', though note that both plate and cuirass seem to be nouns, so that doesn't quite work. I might think then that the gustatus is an adjective ('has been tasted') modifying the lamina or lorica, but that doesn't work either because the 'us' ending on gustatus doesn't fit the feminine ending ('a') of the lamina or the lorica.

[Cory Magel]

It was an attempt at a humorous "motto" in the SCA.  Taste Plate Mail.  As in: I'm about to pummel you with my armor/shield.

[Hurin]

It was an attempt at a humorous "motto" in the SCA.  Taste Plate Mail.  As in: I'm about to pummel you with my armor/shield.

Ah, gotcha. Well, if you want to make the grammar work, you need to put the verb in the imperative case, so you want 'guste' (singular, if you just want one person to taste the plate) or 'gustate' (if you want everyone to taste the plate) rather than gustatus.

Then, you need to change the plate mail from the nominative to the accusative case. While you're at it, you want to make sure you are saying 'plate mail' in the way you want to say it (with plate as an adjective and mail as a noun), since right now they are both nouns. I think you could just drop the 'lamina' and use the 'lorica', since 'lorica' itself can mean breastplate. Either way, you will need to change 'lorica' from the nominative to the accusative case.

So, the pithy version would be (and I kind of like this one best, since it is short and sweet, like the best of Latin usually is):

Guste loricam!

This would be you telling one person to taste the breastplate/cuirass. If you wanted to tell multiple people at once, it would be:

Gustate loricam!

And if you wanted to get really fancy and specify a plate metal breastplate, then you might say:

Guste loricam segmentatam!

(Lorica segmentata being of course the name for the classic Roman armor made of overlapping metal plates/bands).

[Hurin]

Oops, it must be late at night-- I forgot that gusto is a first rather than a second conjugation verb. So the phrase should read 'gusta' (singular) or 'gustate' (plural) rather than guste/gustate.

So, I would suggest instead:

Gusta loricam!
or
Gustate loricam segmentatam!