"Vires Acquirit Eundo"

[Mike Dale]

The above motto is cast into the iron railings of a bridge here in
Melbourne, Australia. Can anyone tell me what it means? The closest I
can get is "Virility acquires innuendo", which although it may be true,
is of dubious accuracy. Actually I suppose it will be something of the
order of "From strength...(whatever)", but I have no idea what "Eundo"
means and neither does my Latin-English dictionary.

Mike

[Jim O'Neil]

Eundo is the dat. or abl. gerund form of eo, ire - to go; vires the nom.
or acc. plural of vis, meaning strength/force. Both words have
irregular forms probably
adding to your confusion. My take on it is something like:

'One gains strength by going' or 'One seeks strength in going.'

Not too keen on each of those and I don't have a good feel for the
shade of meaning of acquirit (from ad+quaero, I presume). Given the
context, I infer that the iron railings are providing support for
whomever is 'going' along the bridge.

[Justin Mansfield]

In article <31902A...@ozemail.com.au>, Mike Dale <mike...@ozemail.com.au> writes:
>The above motto is cast into the iron railings of a bridge here in
>Melbourne, Australia. Can anyone tell me what it means? The closest I
>can get is "Virility acquires innuendo", which although it may be true,

uuuuumm... no. It acquites strength as it goes, or by going. From
eundum the gerund of the verb ire.

[Don Ferruggia]

This is a quote from Vergil (but don't ask me where!).

"Eundo" is the ablative (absolute) of "eundum", which is the gerund of "eo",
"to go", and therefor means "while going".

"Vires" is the accusative plural of "vis" and means strength or energy.

All together, it means "He gathers strength while going" or some such thing.
Presumably going over your bridge is hoped to confer the same benefit.

[Robert Stonehouse]

Mike Dale <mike...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:

>The above motto is cast into the iron railings of a bridge here in
>Melbourne, Australia. Can anyone tell me what it means?

It gains strength in the going. Virgil, Aeneid 4.175, speaking of
Fama, the rumour of Dido's disastrous love for Aeneas,as it goes
through the cties of Africa.

Eundo is the gerund of eo, ire, ivi, itum, go.

[Mike Dale]

My thanks to all those who posted and e-mailed me on this query. It's
good to know there are so many knowledgeable and helpful people out
there.

Mike.

[Robert Stonehouse]

ew...@cityscape.co.uk (Robert Stonehouse) wrote:

>Mike Dale <mike...@ozemail.com.au> wrote:

I should have added - presumably this bridge is over a river, and the
quotation is appropriate to the river, at least at some times of the
year. If it is over a railway, for example, that would be
disappointing.

[Alan Walker]

In article <31902A...@ozemail.com.au>, Mike Dale <mike...@ozemail.com.au> says:
>
>The above motto is cast into the iron railings of a bridge here in
>Melbourne, Australia. Can anyone tell me what it means?

The best I can manage is "It gathers strength as it goes". I assume the
subject is the city of Melbourne.

My Latin is distinctly rusty, so if another poster offers another
translation, I will not insist on mine.

Any discussion of the accuracy of the motto should be moved to
aus.politics. -)

Regards

Alan Walker