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    A Smattering of Latin
    A Smattering of Latin
    A Smattering of Latin
    Ebook177 pages2 hours

    A Smattering of Latin

    By Simon James

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    About this ebook

    This fun, absorbing book, packed with quirky bite-sized lists, quizzes and trivia, is an exploration of the Latin language, aiming to prove that it is as vibrant and relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago.

    It includes sections on Latin in the movies, US state mottoes and place names, and also some choice snippets from real Latin poetry from Catullus, Horace and Virgil, with evocative translations. It contains a fascinating section on the Roman emperors and what they got up to, and gives the basics of the language itself for anyone who would like to learn it. Quizzes allow the reader to guess the names of famous books, songs and James Bond films, cunningly translated into Latin. From the spells in Harry Potter to the use of Latin in Asterix, to the Latin terms that litter law and medicine to the meaning behind UK football club mottoes, this book is the perfect gift for anyone who wants to brush up their Latin, whether they studied it at school or not.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateOct 1, 2016
    ISBN9781911042648
    A Smattering of Latin
    Author

    Simon James

    I was born in Wiltshire in the 1960s and have worked as a surveyor, coat attendant, barman, pay clerk, outdoor instructor, and project manager.  I have loved music ever since I could twiddle the dial on my first radio; my favourite bands are Faithless, Alabama 3, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.  My own musical highlights include reaching the dizzy heights of grade 4 on the violin, bumping into Simply Red in a nightclub, and - more recently - singing backing vocals on a catfish website jingle (check out the video!) I love books, stories, music, mountaineering, the outdoors, and movies. I am learning the guitar. Slowly.

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      Book preview

      A Smattering of Latin - Simon James

      Illustration

      HARRY POTTER

      It is well known that Joanne K. Rowling studied French and Classics at Exeter University, and it seems she put some of her time there to good use. Many of the spells, charms, curses and hexes incanted in the amazingly successful Harry Potter septilogy/heptalogy are a mixture of Latin and Greek, without paying too much attention to grammar. The Hogwart’s motto draco dormiens nunquam titillandus (‘a sleeping dragon should never be tickled’), in particular, attractively contains both a participle and gerundive of obligation. It is as fine a motto as any inspiring wizard would need to get through the day – along perhaps with a sip of Felix Felicis, first met in the Half-Blood Prince, to enhance one’s luck for the day.

      The following incantations are observed, more than once, in some or all of Rowling’s seven epics:

      1  Philosopher’s Stone

      2  Chamber of Secrets

      3  Prisoner of Azkaban

      4  Goblet of Fire

      5  Order of the Phoenix

      6  Half-Blood Prince

      7  Deathly Hallows

      IllustrationIllustrationIllustration

      THE BEATLES

      In 1995 Dr Jukka Ammondt, a Finnish teacher, gained praise for translating, performing and recording Elvis Presley songs in Latin. The titles included nunc hic aut numquam (‘It’s Now Or Never’), non adamare non possum (‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’), cor ligneum (‘Wooden Heart’), tenere me ama (‘Love Me Tender’), nunc distrahor (‘All Shook Up’), ne saevias (‘Don’t Be Cruel’) and gaudi calcei (‘Blue Suede Shoes’).

      Surely it’s only a matter of time before attention turns to The Beatles (coleopteri). So to get in first, here are title suggestions for all their official UK single releases...

      AMA ME/AMES ME

      ‘Love Me Do’

      SI TIBI PLACET, ME DELECTA

      ‘Please Please Me’

      A ME, TIBI

      ‘From Me To You’

      EA TE AMAT

      ‘She Loves You’

      TUI MANUM TENERE VOLO

      ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’

      (PECUNIA) NON POTEST EMERE MIHI AMOREM

      ‘(Money) Can’t Buy Me Love’

      LONGI DIEI NOX

      ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

      VALEO

      ‘I Feel Fine’

      TESSERA AD VEHENDUM

      ‘Ticket To Ride’

      ADIUVA!

      ‘Help!’

      TANTUM PER UNUM DIEM ADERAT/SOLVERE POSSUMUS

      ‘Day Tripper/ We Can Work It Out’

      LIBELLI SCRIPTOR

      ‘Paperback Writer’

      CROCEA NAVIS QUAE SUB AQUA EST/HELENA RIGBY

      ‘Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby’

      VIA SESTERTIUS NOMINE/FRAGORUM AGRI SEMPITERNI

      ‘Penny Lane/ Strawberry Fields Forever’

      AMORE NOBIS OMNIBUS OPUS EST

      ‘All You Need Is Love’

      SALVE, VALE

      ‘Hello Goodbye’

      MATRONA MADONNA

      ‘Lady Madonna’

      IUDE

      ‘Hey Jude’

      CARMEN IOANNIS YOKONISQUE

      ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’

      REDI

      ‘Get Back’

      ALIQUID/ IUNGITE

      ‘Something/Come Together’

      SIT

      ‘Let It Be’

      HERI

      ‘Yesterday’

      CARISSIMA, TE MODO CUPIO

      ‘Baby It’s You’

      LIBER SICUT AVIS

      ‘Free As A Bird’

      VERUS AMOR

      ‘Real Love’

      LATIN IN THE CINEMA, PART I

      The 13th Warrior (1999)

      At the beginning of the film two Arabs from Baghdad meet a Viking party. How best to communicate? At the bidding of Antonio Banderas, Omar Sharif tries Greek; it appears understood as the Norseman replies in Latin, ‘non loquetur quia mortuus est’: (Our king) will not speak with you as he is dead.

      Absolution (1978)

      Richard Burton has a rather unreasonable go at Dai Bradley who stumbles over his translation of ‘his constitutis rebus, nactus’, especially the last word ‘having obtained by chance’. These words are from Caesar’s Gallic Wars Book IV.

      An American Werewolf In London (1981)

      Spread over the internet is an untrue rumour that Jenny Agutter’s London flat is in Lupus Street, Pimlico because lupus means ‘wolf’ in Latin.

      Atonement (2007)

      Juno Temple plays on the name of Army Ammo chocolate bars for soldiers by reciting ‘amo, amas, amat …’

      Boys Will Be Boys (1935)

      While teaching a class about butterflies in a prison, Will Hay finds himself in an argument with an inmate over the origin of the word Lepidoptera. While the con suggests it derives from Greek, Hay insists it comes from Latin: lepi meaning butter and doptera meaning fly.

      Braveheart (1995)

      ‘sanguinarius homo indomitus est’, kindly but rather loosely translated in the subtitles as ‘he’s a bloody murdering savage’, is spoken by one Englishman to another in front of Mel Gibson (William Wallace) to describe him. The speaker is unaware that the educated Wallace understands his words perfectly until he fashions a reply in the same secret tongue.

      The Browning Version (1994)

      Classics teacher Albert Finney quotes from Ovid’s ars amatoria: ‘ars est celare artem’ – the skill lies in how to hide the skill.

      Candy (1968)

      ‘dulcis imperatrix, whatever that may mean,’ says Richard Burton in an address to an adoring audience. We can help you here, Richard: ‘sweet empress’.

      Carry On Cleo (1964)

      Kenneth Williams translates his motto to clean up Rome, ‘nihil ex pectore in omnibus’, as ‘No spitting on public transport’ – neatly anticipating the abbreviation of omnibus to bus by nearly 2000 years.

      Carry On Henry (1971)

      Sid James as Henry VIII utters his family motto ‘non crapito suum januum’, euphemistically translated as ‘Don’t spit on your own doorstep’. It is rather mangled Latin, as it should be tuam ianuam and crapito is made up.

      Dead Poets Society (1989)

      ‘carpe diem,’ said the Roman poet Horace, ‘because one shouldn’t bet on tomorrow.’ This was Robin Williams’ philosophy to his English class. Oddly enough he had made a film called Seize The Day (1986) three years earlier. And there are in-jokes in other Williams films Mrs Doubtfire (1993) and Hook (1991).

      Empire Of The Sun (1987)

      Doctor Nigel Havers tests young Christian Bale with ‘I shall love’, ‘They were being loved’ and ‘I shall have been loved’ to keep up spirits in a Japanese internment camp. Bale later keeps himself going on a forced march by reciting the perfect indicative passive of amo.

      Fear In The Night (1972)

      Headmaster Peter Cushing plays recordings in his school of pupils reciting ‘amatus sum, amatus es, amatus est…’ The perfect indicative passive again.

      Garfield 2 (2006)

      The motto seen is ‘adeo vices parum efficio’. Never translated, it could mean a number of things – perhaps ‘I address changes, I accomplish very little’.

      Girl Interrupted (1999)

      When Vanessa Redgrave’s patient Winona Ryder tells her doctor ‘ambivalent’ is her new favourite word, she replies that ‘Ambivalence suggests strong feelings... in opposition. The prefix, as in ambidextrous, means both. The rest of it, in Latin, means vigour’. And she goes on with some Seneca, an excerpt from Hercules Furens, which she then kindly translates ‘quis est hic locus? quae regio? quae mundi plaga?’ ‘What world is this? What kingdom? What shores of what worlds?’

      Goodbye Mr Chips (1939)

      On his retirement Robert Donat quotes from Virgil’s Aeneid Book I ‘haec olim meminisse iuvabit’ (‘Someday it will please to remember all this’). Back again as interim headmaster, Donat conducts a Latin class while all around bombs are falling. The lines for construing – what a splendid old-fashioned verb – are from Caesar’s Gallic Wars, ‘genus hoc est pugnae, quo se Germani exercuerant’ (‘This was the kind of fighting in which the Germans busied themselves’). On hearing a correct translation from one of his pupils amid the mayhem, Donat says ‘These dead languages do come to life sometimes, don’t they?’ to the merriment of all.

      The Grass Is Greener (1960)

      Cary Grant quotes Terence’s ‘nil dictum quod non dictum prius’ – ‘there is nothing said that has not been said before’.

      Greystoke (1984)

      Note the Latin lesson Andie MacDowell (Jane) is giving Christopher Lambert (Tarzan). On the board is the future perfect of amo. No wonder, a cynic might observe, Tarzan could not wait to return to the jungle.

      The Happy Years

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