Latin saying
Stephanie Peters
Penny Peberdy <pe...@peberdy.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Can anyone help me to find a latin saying that I want to put on a
>sampler for a friend's new house? It translates as *Small house -
>great peace*. Past Times (the shop) used to have it on an terracotta
>plaque, but of course they've discontinued it now!
90% guesswork from DH and I comes up with
domus minimus pax maximus
but don't use it as its probably way off.
Just wanted to prove some of us are still here!
Steph Peters
Manchester, England
bj...@cityscape.co.uk
jan_in_canada
In article <3217B1...@peberdy.demon.co.uk>, Penny says...
>
>Can anyone help me to find a latin saying that I want to put on a
>sampler for a friend's new house? It translates as *Small house -
>great peace*. Past Times (the shop) used to have it on an terracotta
>plaque, but of course they've discontinued it now!
>
HI PENNY. I E-MAILED MY BROTHER TO ASK . . .
> How's your latin? Someone on my newsgroup needs the latin translation
> for "small house - great peace".
AND HE SAID ">WHAT'S A NEWSGROUP ?" !!! HE MAY BE A LINGUIST BUT HE'S BRAND
NEW ON THE NET!!
ANYWAY, HERE'S HIS REPLY:
DOMUS PARVA - PAX AMPLA (assuming that great=abundant,
all-pervading, lots of it everywhere. If great=superior in quality
to everyone else's peace, then it should be PAX MAGNA. We could
also explore the meaning of "peace" in some depth, as there are
alternatives for that as well, such as OTIUM = peace-and-quiet,
leisure-time, rest-away-from-stress-and-work, etc., and
TRANQUILLITAS = peace-and-tranquillity, i.e. without emphasising the
element of the-opposite-of-war which can exist in the Latin PAX just
as it does in the English word "peace", though it doesn't have to.
PAX is prob. the best global choice (esp. if theirs is a household
that harbours any bickering or recalcitrant offspring ! ) and suits
the metre of a motto, being the third word out of four and
monosyllabic.
Should your correspondent choose to use either of the other two, then the
agreements are OTIUM AMPLUM or MAGNUM and
TRANQUILLITAS AMPLA or MAGNA. Because of the length of TRANQUILLITAS
Horace would prob. have reversed the word order with MAGNA, i.e.
MAGNA TRANQUILLITAS).
My personal preference would be for either DOMUS PARVA - PAX AMPLA
or DOMUS PARVA - MAGNA TRANQILLITAS depending on the amount of
space available on the plaque !!
I KNOW, WE'RE ALL SORRY I ASKED, RIGHT?!?!
HOPE YOU RECOGNIZE THE PHRASE YOU WANTED IN THIS SOMEWHERE, IF NOT, LIKE
ROSEMARY, I TRIED!
JAN