Latin Translation

[Matthew Montchalin]

Eion Lawder wrote:
>> Could anyone translate from Latin into English the following:
>>
>> PRODEO REGE ET PATE
>>
>> Thanks in advance!

Louis Remillard wrote:
>Couldn't that be "Pro Deo, rege et patria" = For God, king and country?

I bet that's the case.

>The very fact that you have "prodeo" in one single word leads me to
>think so. "Prodeo" in one word would mean, among other things, "I march
>forward" (to battle).

That might be. The verb prodeo comes from the prefix pro- (forth) and the
verb eo (go). Somehow it puzzles me why somebody would be sallying forth
*from* his king and from his country; using the preposition pro plus the
ablative would straighten the doggone thing out, or maybe just use the
dative. OTOH, pate could be an unattested vulgar separable prefix (not
usually seen in Latin) for "out in the open" (compare patefacio, pateo,
pando), making it "prodeo rege, et simul pateprodeo" but let's not go
overboard on that which is unattested as opposed to that which makes the
most sense, namely, Pro deo, rege, et patria.

>In this context, it wouldn't make sense.

Exactly.

>I'm sure that John Woodgate, a frequent and knowledgeable contributor, can
>confirm... or correct this.

What kind of inscription was it? Are all the letters standing up normal
like that of a modern typerwriter? Were any of the E's laying down, or on
their side? Were there any dots above or below or between any of the
letters?

If the inscription reads "PRODEOREGEETPATE" it is more than likely that
PATE ought to have been spelled PATRIA but for miscalculation of how much
room there was to carve the letters. In fact, it is more than liklely
that the guy decided to convert the R into an E at the very last minute,
figuring that most people wouldn't know the difference (they sounded out
the words as they read, and a common phrase tends to be concluded
according to familiarity, and without regard for minor spelling errors).

"Pro Deo, Rege, et Patria" is a common phrase.
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