This Latin translation would look good embroidered or stenciled anywhere (maybe a bumper sticker?) And I think it would be funny, because the people for whom it is intended are probably the ones who wouldn't get it.
Non illegitimati carborundum.
Or have I mistranslated that?
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Please note that I'm cursing myself for sending my dictionary home (classes done, woo!).
Illegitimi would be a technical term. It carries little to none of the invective force we associate with "bastards." More close to our sense of the word is nothi.
I have found no entries in two different dictionaries for carborundum; I checked both Latin-English and English-Latin. There's a few words you could use, the best two being: contero -terere -trivi -tritum [to rub away , grind, pound]; in gen., [to wear away, destroy, obliterate]; of time, [to consume, spend] AND frango frangere fregi fractum [to break , break in pieces, shatter]; of persons, passions, etc., [to master, subdue, humble]; 'frangi animo', [to be discouraged] I'd use conterere, personally.
I racking my brains trying to figure out if there is a negative imperative form. I don't think so. I think you have to use a negative jussive subjunctive. Which sends me off to my reference sheet, since I hate subjunctives.
Okay: Ne nothi te conterant.
I think.
And if all the gobbledygook makes no sense to you, it makes less sense to me, and I pretty much just have it there as a written form of thinking out loud.
[ December 11, 2004, 10:53 PM: Message edited by: Eaquae Legit ]
Posted by jehovoid (Member # 2014) on :
Nolite nothi te conterere?
Posted by Toretha (Member # 2233) on :
Semper ubi sububi
Sumus equites qui dicunt "Ni!"
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
But would it be nothi as the subject of conterere or nothos as the object of nolite, Jehovoid?
Posted by jehovoid (Member # 2014) on :
I guess it would be in the accusative. I don't know, I really stink at English to Latin.
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
I think what you have comes out kind of like "Refuse the bastards to grind you down." There's no "let" involved.
Hmmm... I love these sorts of challenges, but they are definitely challenges.