Latin to English, please: felis demuleta

[M P Withell]

>That text, 'Felis Demuleta Mitis', appears on my family crest.

Doesn't it mean something like "Stroke the cat gently", or am I in the same
class as the schoolboy doing a French translation with a dictionary who came
to the phrase, "Rose, emu, repondit," [with accents!] and wrote, "The pink
emu laid another egg"?

Malcolm Withell (mwit...@cix.compulink.co.uk)

[Carlo Mario Chierotti]

M P Withell <mwit...@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote:

>>That text, 'Felis Demuleta Mitis', appears on my family crest.
>
>Doesn't it mean something like "Stroke the cat gently"

"Felis" and "Mitis" go together = "gentle cat".

"Demuleta" sounds as the imperative of a verbe, but there's no such
verb in Latin. There's only "Demulceo, -es, -mulsi, ere" (which BTW
means "to lick".

are you sure of the spelling?
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Carlo Mario Chierotti
e-mail pro...@mbox.vol.it
phone/fax ++39-144-356817
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

[Kevin Kane]

In article <44i8ap$d...@newsvol.vol.it>,

Carlo Mario Chierotti <pro...@mbox.vol.it> wrote:
>are you sure of the spelling?

Absolutely.

--
Kevin Kane (Frnkzk) / Rockville, Maryland, USA / frn...@chezmoto.ai.mit.edu

[Carlo Mario Chierotti]

frn...@chezmoto.ai.mit.edu (Kevin Kane) wrote:

OK on monday I'll check at the National University Library in Torino.
Maybe I'll find something. See you in two or three days.

ave atque vale

[Jane Tolmie]

In article <44i8ap$d...@newsvol.vol.it>, pro...@mbox.vol.it (Carlo Mario
Chierotti) wrote:

> M P Withell <mwit...@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >>That text, 'Felis Demuleta Mitis', appears on my family crest.
> >
> >Doesn't it mean something like "Stroke the cat gently"
>
> "Felis" and "Mitis" go together = "gentle cat".
>
> "Demuleta" sounds as the imperative of a verbe, but there's no such
> verb in Latin. There's only "Demulceo, -es, -mulsi, ere" (which BTW
> means "to lick".
>

> are you sure of the spelling?
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

> Carlo Mario Chierotti
> e-mail pro...@mbox.vol.it
> phone/fax ++39-144-356817
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.

Demulceo, -mulcere, -mulsi also means to stroke down, caress by stroking.

[Bernie Wynne]

In article <tolmie-0210...@tolmie.student.harvard.edu> tol...@fas.harvard.edu (Jane Tolmie) writes:
>Path:
>news.demon.co.uk!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!howland
>.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!in2.uu.net!noc.near.net!das-news2.harvard.ed
>u!fas-news.harvard.edu!tolmie.student.harvard.edu!user
>From: tol...@fas.harvard.edu (Jane Tolmie)
>Newsgroups: sci.lang.translation
>Subject: Re: Latin to English, please: felis demuleta
>Date: Mon, 02 Oct 1995 14:56:30 -0500
>Organization: Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
>Lines: 24
>Message-ID: <tolmie-0210...@tolmie.student.harvard.edu>
>References: <memo....@cix.compulink.co.uk> <44i8ap$d...@newsvol.vol.it>
>NNTP-Posting-Host: tolmie.student.harvard.edu

This has all the hallmarks of a wind-up. My guess is that the original poster
wants us to believe that his family motto is *Stroke pussy gently* and has
fouled up badly on syntax.

BmW

[Gabe Bokor]

wyn...@oldpeter.agw.bt.co.uk (Bernie Wynne) wrote:

>
>This has all the hallmarks of a wind-up. My guess is that the original poster
>wants us to believe that his family motto is *Stroke pussy gently* and has
>fouled up badly on syntax.
>
>BmW
>

It seems to me that it's the syntax of the attempted translation,
rather than the motto itself, is fouled up. If I'm not wrong in
my analysis of the sentence, it should be translated as "A
stroked cat is tame," i.e., if you treat her gently, she won't
hurt you.

Gabe