Latin translations

A popular genre of questions at Google Answers is translations from English to Latin.

Sometimes the questions are driven by personal curiosity, sometimes the translations are related to schoolwork, and some are motivational messages. Sometimes someone just wants a pompous-sounding byline for a website, and a surprising number are messages of love.

Since the Google Answers service started, around 200 such questions have been answered, at prices ranging from $2 to $60.

The following translations were for tattoos - better get those ones right!

• Rise Above
• I will try again romorrow
• Cherished

Nearly as critical was this one, to be engraved onto an Ipod as a gift:

• To the end of time

Here’s just a tiny sample of the rest:

• Opportunity at last!
• Soul of a poet, heart of a lion
• Life is what you make it
• Whom I Love and Cherish
• Always loyal to my true love
• The ears of the people are the ears of God
• I will do it tomorrow
• Peace, love and understanding
• Words are not enough
• Pain is temporary, pride is forever
• I can’t imagine how this could possibly go wrong
• Do your best
• Turn over more rocks
• One thing, six different ways, every five minutes
• I can, therefore I might
• Well, it was working yesterday
• To infinity and beyond
• We see everywhere
• I will wait for you forever
• Seek to understand the universe and you shall understand nothing at all but seek to understand yourself and the universe shall unfold before you
• No strength within, no respect without
• Envy of the fleet
• I am what I am
• No-one speaks my f**king language
• Onward! For King and Country
• Beware of gold, for it can turn even the best of friends into enemies
• Passion, trust and respect
• When a man is tired of London he is tired of life
• Freedom through knowledge

There are many more.

Researchers providing these translations included hlabadie-ga, guillermo-ga, pinkfreud-ga, tutuzdad-ga, juggler-ga, livioflores-ga, but mostly alanna-ga who also provided two further links of interest: Latin phrases used in English, and Latin proverbs and locutions.

I’ve don’t speak Latin myself, but back when I was at school my friend Neil used to quote ridiculous Latin phrases. One of his favourites was Quanti canicule ille in finestre? which translates as How much is that doggie in the window? and can be found with other similar nonsense at Latin Phrases and Expressions.

(photo by Sanja Gjenero)

This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 5:46 pm by eiffel and is filed under Answers Spotlight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.