Useful Latin quote...

[fajrdrako]

Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est.
-- Anonymous.

What I really want to find, though: a year or two ago I saw a .sig which said, in Latin: "Anything written in Latin sounds erudite" and in Elvish "anything written in Elvish sounds beautiful". But I didn't write it down and haven't seen it since. Bother.

Comments

[teaphile.livejournal.com]

Was it, "Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur"? I used that as a .sig for years.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yup, that was probably it. And I still love it. So - can you find me the Elvish quote too? It must exist somewhere!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Um... much as I hate to say it, I would like to request a translation [blush]... could I blame it on the late hour, and the fact that a postal worker has a bit of a right to be virtually brain-dead along about the first week of January each year? Thanks, you are too kind!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Aw, I don't expect anyone to know Latin. This is just for my own amusement. It means roughly: "To know where you can find information when you want to is the most important part of education."

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I know, I understand. But here I am, seven years of Latin study behind me and many more years than that of enjoying the language wherever it may turn up, and I couldn't remember enough of it to translate your quote off the top of my head -- chagrin, they call it.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Isn't it a pain? Sometimes I feel the same way - all those years of education, evaporated into nothing! Especially when it comes to languages. My Latin isn't nearly as good as it used to be. I really should at least read a textbook - haven't done that for a few years. No time. Or maybe a refresher course.... Don't I wish I could find a course in conversational Latin!

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Converstional Latin! What a nifty thought. If you ever do find one, let me know -- I'd happily make the drive to Ottawa once a week for that particular class [-;

And chagrin, again: your mention of textbooks reminds me that I have at least two of them, here, found on the Barnes & Noble sale rack or maybe on the used-books table at the local community college bookstore... and I should certainly enjoy the rest of my winter much more, were I to dive into one and retool my edification. Not?

Trivia: in Frank Herbert's Dune books, the name of the subtle sisterhood, the Bene Gesserit, is actually a form of the Latin to be, in an incredibly obscure tense, translating something like: "She/he/it will have done well." I learned this in my last few weeks of the final year of university-level Latin, and I was dismayed that no one else in the class seemed at all impressed at my discovery. Hmph... don't they know a thing about great literature?

Anyway, knowing the Bene Gesserit, of course the way they would translate their own name would be: "She will have done well."

The road of learning goes ever on....

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

And Latin is especially rich in variety, meaning and lore. Not to mention history. I wish I could spend more time with it! (And Esperanto and Anglo-Saxon and French and so on....)

I read a fascinating article about Hittite yesterday.... no time or energy to comment on it now, but I'll try to remember tomorrow.