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I'd like to translate "Death to the enemies of mankind" into Latin. How can I do that? If there are multiple ways of saying it, I would like it structured as close to a motto as possible, since that's what I intend to use it for.

Joonas Ilmavirta
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Budhaditya Ghosh
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    “Latin” is a weird way to spell “High Gothic” :-P – Joshua Grosso Apr 28 '20 at 01:52
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    @BalinKingOfMoriaReinstateCMs In Gothic, it's "Mortis xenos, adversa humanis". Just pick whatever Latin words that make the meaning clear to an English speaker. Ignore any grammar, that just makes stuff difficult. – JollyJoker Apr 28 '20 at 08:19
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    As much as I like 40k, it's for my own fictional universe, so I'd prefer Latin xD – Budhaditya Ghosh Apr 28 '20 at 10:55
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    Out of interest: Who are the enemies of mankind? – lejonet Apr 28 '20 at 15:08
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    It's a slogan for the Terran military forces, who fight within the larger Terran Union Army. All forces originating from Earth share this common motto, though they may be different otherwise, even to the extent of other mottos. – Budhaditya Ghosh Apr 28 '20 at 15:59

3 Answers3

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I would go with

Mors humanae gentis inimicis.

This is a literal translation that follows the original pretty closely: mors "death", humanae gentis "of the human race, of mankind", inimicis "to the enemies". Latin word order is flexible; this order sounds best to me, but others would be grammatically correct too.

(Note that if you ask Google Translate, it will tell you this means "Death is an enemy of mankind", which it does not. As has often been discussed on this site, Google Translate doesn't actually know Latin.)

TKR
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    Does classical Latin ever say "mors + dative" to mean "so-and-so must die"? – fdb Nov 26 '21 at 17:13
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    @fdb Good point -- come to think of it, maybe not (though possibly mortem acc. as object of some implied verb?). If it doesn't and if Classical idiom is important to the OP, maybe a looser paraphrase with e.g. moriantur is better. – TKR Nov 26 '21 at 19:29
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A quick translation of that phrase could be something like:

"Moriendum Hostibus Hominum"

This is a straightforward translation of what you're looking for. Many words could replace moriendum in this phrase, like fatum, letum, exitium, mors etc. I chose moriendum because it rounds out the phrase with a starting -um and an ending -um. That sentential symmetry was much liked by the Romans. Also, moriendum being a verb-turned-into-a-noun (gerund) feels much more active than a plain noun like those listed above.

I have fixed my mistake; hostis is now declined properly. In response to the comments on this post, I submit that Moriendum is acceptable with an implied to be verb (est). This would give a construction like "nunc est bibendum" in Ovid's Cleopatra ode. The intended translation of my submission is "(It is the time for) dying for the enemies of mankind."

Nickimite
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  • Does that literally translate to what I asked for, or is it, like, similar in meaning? Google Translate seems to think it means "Taker of man's foes". – Budhaditya Ghosh Apr 27 '20 at 02:45
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    Shouldn't it be hostibus, dative of reference? (Though my sense is that inimicus would be a better choice -- hostis connotes armed conflict between nations, which doesn't to be quite what OP is looking for.) – TKR Apr 27 '20 at 04:28
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    @Nickimite: A gerund gives "dying is the enemy of men"; a gerundive: "it-ought-to-be-dying" rendered to "it must be death"; shouldn't it be dative hostibus/ inimicis--to the enemies of men? – tony Apr 27 '20 at 11:39
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    The gerund in Latin doesn't have a nominative; the infinitive is used there. – eques Apr 27 '20 at 15:03
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    @Budhaditya Ghosh One should never rely on Google Translate for Latin translations. Its translations are almost always wrong. Not that human students of Latin are always right (as you can tell from the comments on my post) but we're always more right than Google. – Nickimite Apr 28 '20 at 03:11
  • @Nickimite: Please see Q: https://latin.stackexchange.com/q/10809/1982; "nunc est moriendum"--the best translation, using English impersonal pronoun, "one", is "now one must die"; presumably, the translation would be completed with (--the enemies of mankind). – tony Apr 28 '20 at 11:21
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    In that example 'est' is obligatory. – Hugh Apr 29 '20 at 01:45
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How about "they shall die" - moriuntor hostis humanitatis

tunitgut
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  • (or hostes - i think both is possible for nom.pl.) – tunitgut Apr 27 '20 at 16:20
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    Welcome to the site and thanks for the suggestion! Two remarks: (1) I think the one ending in -is is only possible in plural accusative, not nominative, so it'd have to be hostes. See this for some details. (2) Your English translation suggests that you wanted to use future, which would be morientur. Or did you mean to use present tense? // You can always edit your questions and answers to add details or fix something. – Joonas Ilmavirta Apr 27 '20 at 17:51
  • I like morientor, but I don't think it means "they shall die". Rather it means, "let them die". Please come up with a better English phrase. – Figulus Dec 31 '23 at 02:10