EXEMPLARIS DÍGNITAS ("The Dealio")
May 2, 2016 12:27 PM Subscribe
This excerpt from the Lexicon Recentis Latinitas contains Vatican-approved Latin translations for 600 (comparatively) modern concepts. For example, the Latin term for "jazz" is iazensis música. "Laser" is instrumentum laséricum, "Scotch" is víschium Scóticum, "mini golf" is pilamálleus minūtus, and "blue jeans" are bracae línteae caerúleae.
(The other half of the lexicon is mostly in Italian; here's a version of the list that includes a column of English translations. Use at your own risk; I'm not certain that "The Dealio" is a faithful rendering of idealità.)
(The other half of the lexicon is mostly in Italian; here's a version of the list that includes a column of English translations. Use at your own risk; I'm not certain that "The Dealio" is a faithful rendering of idealità.)
Just in time for my next tattoo.
posted by bleep at 12:48 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 12:48 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Holy smokes, "pilamálleus minūtus" looks like some alchemical formula or incantation. Gotta find a use for this...
posted by wenestvedt at 1:00 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by wenestvedt at 1:00 PM on May 2, 2016
Also, mapping "potpourri" to "carnes oleraque vária" makes it sound kind of smutty.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:01 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by wenestvedt at 1:01 PM on May 2, 2016
This is really great and will score me some smart-points in the alternate-history forum where I hang out. Also the word for thermos, lagoena calefactória is really epic.
posted by seasparrow at 1:03 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by seasparrow at 1:03 PM on May 2, 2016
Have Games Workshop been informed?
posted by Artw at 1:09 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 1:09 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ironically, the words are more lapidary in modern languages than in the Latin.
The consolidator is Italian Latinist Cletus Pavanetto, up there with Fr. Reginald Foster for pushing Latin.
posted by BWA at 1:15 PM on May 2, 2016
The consolidator is Italian Latinist Cletus Pavanetto, up there with Fr. Reginald Foster for pushing Latin.
posted by BWA at 1:15 PM on May 2, 2016
OH MAN, so every place that has a bishop has an official Latin name, and since college I've kept a list of my favorite Latin place names for American cities, here are a few:
So your standard form is to add "-iensis": Raleighiensis, Spokanensis, Desmoinensis, or Bioloxiensis. Sometimes we have to make a few spelling adjustments, as Latin doesn't allow double Os, so Brooklyn is Bruklyniensis and Kalamazoo is Kalamazuensis. (But Crookston in Minnesota is Crookstoniensis.) Ws and Js are out, too, so Milwaukee is Milvaukiensis and Joliet is Ioliettensis in Illinois.
But SOMETIMES we get to translate the place name into Latin -- sometimes a direct translation and sometimes a translation in combination with the old place name from Europe -- and we get beautiful things like:
Rubribaculensis -- Baton Rouge (Red Stick)
Angelorum in California -- LA
Neo-Eboracensis -- New York
Sanctae Fidei in America Septentrionali -- Santa Fe -- Holy Faith in America of the North
If you're a city or a town or a -polis, you get to be a legit polis:
Indianapolitanus (Indianapolis)
Kansanopolitanus in Kansas (KC, Kan)
Alanopolitanus (Allentown, PA)
Xylopolitanus (Boise City -- "Boise" means "wooded" so now we're the town of xylum!)
Dodgepolitanus (Dodge City)
Quercopolitanus (Oakland -- "Oak city")
Carolopolitanus (Charleston)
Ludovicopolitanus (Louisville)
Even more fun:
Litoris Palmensis -- Palm Beach
Vayne Castrensis -- Fort Wayne, literally "Wayne Castle" (but it's part of the diocese of Vayne Castrensis – Southbendensis because apparently South Bend doesn't get to be translated)
Arcis Vorthensis -- Fort Worth
Grandicataractensis -- Grand Rapids (grand waterfall)
Magnocataractensis -- Great Falls (HUGE waterfall)
Petriculanus -- Little Rock (Little Peter!)
Sinus Viridis -- Green Bay
Civitatis Ieffersoniensis -- Jefferson City (MO)
And so on and so forth, official diocesan names in the New World are an endless font of Latin delight.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:35 PM on May 2, 2016 [45 favorites]
So your standard form is to add "-iensis": Raleighiensis, Spokanensis, Desmoinensis, or Bioloxiensis. Sometimes we have to make a few spelling adjustments, as Latin doesn't allow double Os, so Brooklyn is Bruklyniensis and Kalamazoo is Kalamazuensis. (But Crookston in Minnesota is Crookstoniensis.) Ws and Js are out, too, so Milwaukee is Milvaukiensis and Joliet is Ioliettensis in Illinois.
But SOMETIMES we get to translate the place name into Latin -- sometimes a direct translation and sometimes a translation in combination with the old place name from Europe -- and we get beautiful things like:
Rubribaculensis -- Baton Rouge (Red Stick)
Angelorum in California -- LA
Neo-Eboracensis -- New York
Sanctae Fidei in America Septentrionali -- Santa Fe -- Holy Faith in America of the North
If you're a city or a town or a -polis, you get to be a legit polis:
Indianapolitanus (Indianapolis)
Kansanopolitanus in Kansas (KC, Kan)
Alanopolitanus (Allentown, PA)
Xylopolitanus (Boise City -- "Boise" means "wooded" so now we're the town of xylum!)
Dodgepolitanus (Dodge City)
Quercopolitanus (Oakland -- "Oak city")
Carolopolitanus (Charleston)
Ludovicopolitanus (Louisville)
Even more fun:
Litoris Palmensis -- Palm Beach
Vayne Castrensis -- Fort Wayne, literally "Wayne Castle" (but it's part of the diocese of Vayne Castrensis – Southbendensis because apparently South Bend doesn't get to be translated)
Arcis Vorthensis -- Fort Worth
Grandicataractensis -- Grand Rapids (grand waterfall)
Magnocataractensis -- Great Falls (HUGE waterfall)
Petriculanus -- Little Rock (Little Peter!)
Sinus Viridis -- Green Bay
Civitatis Ieffersoniensis -- Jefferson City (MO)
And so on and so forth, official diocesan names in the New World are an endless font of Latin delight.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:35 PM on May 2, 2016 [45 favorites]
so Brooklyn is Bruklyniensis
If keeping with Latin orthography, wouldn't the ‘y’ and ‘k’ be squashed to an ‘i’ and ‘c’ as well, giving Brucliniensis?
posted by acb at 1:44 PM on May 2, 2016
If keeping with Latin orthography, wouldn't the ‘y’ and ‘k’ be squashed to an ‘i’ and ‘c’ as well, giving Brucliniensis?
posted by acb at 1:44 PM on May 2, 2016
Do Truth or Consequences, NM and Half.com, OR have bishops?
posted by griphus at 1:48 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by griphus at 1:48 PM on May 2, 2016
Unfortunately Truth or Consequences is in Las Cruses and Halfway is in Baker.
And I think the spelling and orthography is a BIT ad hoc. Also new diocesan names can't overlap with existing diocesan names, including extinct dioceses, for the last 2,000 years. So sometimes an American city gets to keep a relatively Americanized spelling because there's already some ancient North African diocese that stopped existing in 600 CE but has the same name. And sometimes they just stick "in America" or something on the end, like Memphis becomes Memphitana in Tennesia because there's already a Memphitana in Egypt, which hasn't had a resident bishop since, like, the rise of Islam, but THE NAME STILL COUNTS.
(If you want someone to have the powers of a bishop, like ordaining people, he has to be a bishop OF somewhere and each place can only have one bishop, so to have assistant bishops in huge modern cities, the workaround is that the assistant bishops are elevated to "titular sees" which are dioceses that aren't technically there any longer BUT THEY STILL COUNT. If you ever happen to be meeting an assistant bishop, they are always super-flattered if you took the time to look up their titular see and ask them about it, and they will delightedly regale you with ancient tales of faraway places they are the imaginary boss of. If you were the imaginary boss of an ancient faraway place you'd probably learn a bunch of its history too!)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:04 PM on May 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
And I think the spelling and orthography is a BIT ad hoc. Also new diocesan names can't overlap with existing diocesan names, including extinct dioceses, for the last 2,000 years. So sometimes an American city gets to keep a relatively Americanized spelling because there's already some ancient North African diocese that stopped existing in 600 CE but has the same name. And sometimes they just stick "in America" or something on the end, like Memphis becomes Memphitana in Tennesia because there's already a Memphitana in Egypt, which hasn't had a resident bishop since, like, the rise of Islam, but THE NAME STILL COUNTS.
(If you want someone to have the powers of a bishop, like ordaining people, he has to be a bishop OF somewhere and each place can only have one bishop, so to have assistant bishops in huge modern cities, the workaround is that the assistant bishops are elevated to "titular sees" which are dioceses that aren't technically there any longer BUT THEY STILL COUNT. If you ever happen to be meeting an assistant bishop, they are always super-flattered if you took the time to look up their titular see and ask them about it, and they will delightedly regale you with ancient tales of faraway places they are the imaginary boss of. If you were the imaginary boss of an ancient faraway place you'd probably learn a bunch of its history too!)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:04 PM on May 2, 2016 [9 favorites]
Holy smokes, "pilamálleus minūtus" looks like some alchemical formula or incantation. Gotta find a use for this...
Yeah, I'm going to have to revive the minigolf tournament we did in Chicago as part of our 15th anniversary meet-ups because I REALLY need to put pilamálleus minūtus on a medal/ribbon/trophy soon.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:14 PM on May 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I'm going to have to revive the minigolf tournament we did in Chicago as part of our 15th anniversary meet-ups because I REALLY need to put pilamálleus minūtus on a medal/ribbon/trophy soon.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:14 PM on May 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
Hmm. For some reason, the other day my 9-year old asked me what YouTube would be in Latin, and I'd been meaning to look this up (after noting that as a proper name, it might not change)...nope, not here. Oh well.
posted by Four Ds at 2:20 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by Four Ds at 2:20 PM on May 2, 2016
These city names can be harvested from Wikipedia articles on Catholic (arch)dioceses in the US (although not all of them have the Latin name). Here are some examples:
Archidioecesis Novae Aureliae
Dioecesis Campenis
Dioecesis Civitatis Lacus Salsi
Archidioecesis Paulopolitana et Minneapolitana
Dioecesis Campifontis presumably got there before Dioecesis Campifontis in Illinois and Dioecesis Campifontis–Capitis Girardeauensis
Dioecesis Riverormensis (why is "fall" translated but not "river")?
Dioecesis Petropolitana in Insula Longa
Dioecesis Arausicanae in California
posted by madcaptenor at 2:40 PM on May 2, 2016
Archidioecesis Novae Aureliae
Dioecesis Campenis
Dioecesis Civitatis Lacus Salsi
Archidioecesis Paulopolitana et Minneapolitana
Dioecesis Campifontis presumably got there before Dioecesis Campifontis in Illinois and Dioecesis Campifontis–Capitis Girardeauensis
Dioecesis Riverormensis (why is "fall" translated but not "river")?
Dioecesis Petropolitana in Insula Longa
Dioecesis Arausicanae in California
posted by madcaptenor at 2:40 PM on May 2, 2016
My home diocese of Rockville Centre becomes Petropolitana in Insula Longa which is great because it's kind of like a rhyming pun with "metropolitan" which apparently means "archbishop" and "Petra" for "rock" and/or the person/place I built my church on.
posted by bleep at 2:41 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 2:41 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
what YouTube would be in Latin
"TuTubus," maybe? People seem to like TuTubus.
posted by Iridic at 2:42 PM on May 2, 2016
"TuTubus," maybe? People seem to like TuTubus.
posted by Iridic at 2:42 PM on May 2, 2016
Ain't in this list, but the Church devised a prayer to St. Isidore before browsing the Internet, so "Internet" is either "Interrete" or "Rete Contextum".
Add'ly, OMNIA VESTRA CASTRORUM SUNT HABETUR NOBIS.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 2:50 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Add'ly, OMNIA VESTRA CASTRORUM SUNT HABETUR NOBIS.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 2:50 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
One of my lecturers studied quantum physics at the Pontifical Gregorian University many years ago (I don't know when exactly but he's quite elderly). Apparently at the time all his textbooks were in Latin! Luckily he was allowed to write his thesis in Italian.
posted by orrnyereg at 3:09 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by orrnyereg at 3:09 PM on May 2, 2016
thermopólium potórium et gustatórium does sound classier than snack bar, I can't lie
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 3:14 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 3:14 PM on May 2, 2016
I am liking looking up the meanings of the Latin words they used to assemble bigger words. Like "bamboo" is "Indian reeds" and "Karate" is Japanese Unarmed Fighting. Bedlam is "vast clamor". Unfortunately most of the ones that I lookup just lead back to this set of words.
posted by bleep at 3:30 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by bleep at 3:30 PM on May 2, 2016
And it seems like "fishing" becomes... "The Persian Evil"??
posted by bleep at 3:36 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by bleep at 3:36 PM on May 2, 2016
Last time this was important to me, standard procedure was 'Find it in DeGrasse's Orbis Latinum and go from there. If it's not in Orbis Latinum, pick the next largest city nearby and go from there'. I wonder how much of this vocab is used by, for example, Nuntii Latini, or if they and other Neo Latin sites just kinda wing it? I know people nearby to ask, but I'm lazy.
Speaking of Nuntii, I recently found a Greek counterpart: Akropolis World News. If you know of any others, feel free to memail me. No such thing as too much daily news in Ancient Greek.
posted by eclectist at 3:50 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Speaking of Nuntii, I recently found a Greek counterpart: Akropolis World News. If you know of any others, feel free to memail me. No such thing as too much daily news in Ancient Greek.
posted by eclectist at 3:50 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
"kind of like a rhyming pun with "metropolitan" which apparently means "archbishop"
Yeah, technically a metropolitan was the bishop of the chief city of a Roman province; he has no canonical or theological authority over the suffragan bishops of the lesser cities in his province, but a few bits of bureaucratic authority. Like, prior to modern communications, he was responsible for notifying Rome if the neighboring bishop dropped dead, and he can appoint a temporary administrator. These days, certain canon law/Roman tribunal legal things tend to be housed at the metropolitan bishop to serve the entire surrounding area, since not every diocese needs a full-time canon lawyer and it's just more efficient. He's responsible for reporting certain canon law breaches if they're not reported by his brother bishops. Seriously 90% of what they do these days is issuing press statements pertaining to the whole region (and signed by all the local bishops). The nearest archdiocese with an archbishop is probably the "metropolitan" bishop that oversees your area.
(Sadly Rockville Center is just a regular diocese and your metropolitan bishop is probably the Archbishop of New York.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:37 PM on May 2, 2016
Yeah, technically a metropolitan was the bishop of the chief city of a Roman province; he has no canonical or theological authority over the suffragan bishops of the lesser cities in his province, but a few bits of bureaucratic authority. Like, prior to modern communications, he was responsible for notifying Rome if the neighboring bishop dropped dead, and he can appoint a temporary administrator. These days, certain canon law/Roman tribunal legal things tend to be housed at the metropolitan bishop to serve the entire surrounding area, since not every diocese needs a full-time canon lawyer and it's just more efficient. He's responsible for reporting certain canon law breaches if they're not reported by his brother bishops. Seriously 90% of what they do these days is issuing press statements pertaining to the whole region (and signed by all the local bishops). The nearest archdiocese with an archbishop is probably the "metropolitan" bishop that oversees your area.
(Sadly Rockville Center is just a regular diocese and your metropolitan bishop is probably the Archbishop of New York.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:37 PM on May 2, 2016
BTW all dioceses have coats of arms, so if you ever wondered what a chief herald would come up with for your city if he sat around and thought for a long time what the coat of arms for Boise should look like, you can find out! They're often interesting ... my local has fleur-de-lis for the French missionaries who were the first Europeans in the area, a calumet for the local Native American tribes, and an eight-pointed star for Mary, which also appeared in the coat of arms of the first explorer in the area.
Chicago's is a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Chicago Fire, which is pretty awesome. New York's is a St. Patrick's cross (for the Cathedral and the large Irish Catholic population), with a Dutch windmill inside it for the city's Dutch heritage. LA's is three sets of angel wings lifting golden roses that represent Mary (city of our lady of the angels). Etc.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:53 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Chicago's is a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Chicago Fire, which is pretty awesome. New York's is a St. Patrick's cross (for the Cathedral and the large Irish Catholic population), with a Dutch windmill inside it for the city's Dutch heritage. LA's is three sets of angel wings lifting golden roses that represent Mary (city of our lady of the angels). Etc.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:53 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
I remember the stress of the chamber choir concert in which our director was bound and determined that we'd have no trouble singing modern Italianate Latin, modern British Latin, medieval French Latin, Renaissance Spanish Latin, Renaissanca French Latin, and Brazilian Portuguese. With Altos and Tenors reading alto clef and tenor clef.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:31 PM on May 2, 2016
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:31 PM on May 2, 2016
« Older How Bob Buckter Repainted San Francisco | Usha Uthup: not your average playback singer Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by griphus at 12:36 PM on May 2, 2016 [1 favorite]