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Is it correct that “Finit hic, deo” translates into “God ends here” like they say in the movie “The Nun”?

(The scene in the movie where the phrase is seen and the translation is given can be viewed here.)

Sebastian Koppehel
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Mads Vestergaard
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1 Answers1

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No, that is not a correct translation, but the root problem is probably not a mistranslation from Latin to English, but rather from English to Latin. The Latin sentence was very likely created specifically for the motion picture – as far as I can see, it does not appear anywhere else – and, as they say, mistakes were made.

There are a few problems here:

  • deo should be deus, because, as the subject of the sentence, God must be in the nominative case. Deo is dative or ablative.
  • finit should be finitur, because the verb finire means “to end,” but in the sense of “put an end to something, stop something” when used in the active voice. In the passive voice it means “to cease, stop, die.” However, there are historical examples where finire is used actively to mean “to stop talking, to finish, to die.” It's not classical usage, but “The Nun” isn't exactly a movie about Cicero, so strictly speaking, the form finit is defensible.
  • The comma makes no sense.

As C Monsour has pointed out in the comments, it the word order is infelicitous, because it suggests the reading “This god ends.” It is be better to draw the hic to the front.

In conclusion, the correct form would be: Hic finit(ur) deus.

What would the sentence mean as it appears in the movie? It is not ungrammatical, but the subject is missing. The deo could be interpreted as a dativus (in)commodi, indicating that God is affected by the action. In that case the meaning would be:

He (or she or it) ends (something) here for God (i.e., to his advantage or disadvantage).

For example (since it is my understanding that the sentence is inscribed on a door in the movie), the sentence could mean that the door ends the passage here for God.

It could also be interpreted as an ablativus instrumentalis:

He (or she or it) ends (something) here using God.

I see no way to read the sentence that would excuse the comma, though. The comma does suggest that the sentence is directed at God, in which case we would expect the vocative case. The classical vocative of deus is one of the great mysteries of the Latin language, but in the Christian context it is deus. It is definitely not deo.

Sebastian Koppehel
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  • Wow thanks for the big and great answer! – Mads Vestergaard Sep 01 '20 at 20:49
  • In the movie it means something like, when they pass the door, god doesn't exist anymore, like the absence of him I think It could be expressed like that. But when I google deo it comes up as god but I have no understanding of latin so maeby iam getting something wrong – Mads Vestergaard Sep 01 '20 at 20:51
  • @MadsVestergaard Latin nouns have many forms, and deus has more than most (see them all here). They all mean “god” in a sense, but which one you have to use depends on context. Understanding how exactly that works is a big part of learning Latin, and explaining it would go a little far here. – Sebastian Koppehel Sep 01 '20 at 21:35
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    The word order does matter here. hic as an adverb shouldn't usually stand next to a noun that it might modify as an adjective. Finitur hic deus means "this god is ended" or "this god is dead". If you want "God ends here" you want Hic finitur deus. – C Monsour Sep 01 '20 at 22:41
  • @CMonsour Oh right, maybe that was the idea behind the comma – Sebastian Koppehel Sep 01 '20 at 22:52
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    Probably not, since hic doesn't agree with deo. – C Monsour Sep 01 '20 at 23:22
  • This is why gravemarkers start Hic iacet... and not Iacet hic.... – C Monsour Sep 01 '20 at 23:24
  • Okay I am a little confused now, it's for a tattoo so I hope to get it right, so the real one would be " Hic finitur deus" or I am I wrong? And if would it be easier to put something like "where god ends" instead? And thanks for all the help! – Mads Vestergaard Sep 02 '20 at 17:00
  • By the way, while this issue with hic is unusual, Latin word order in general is not very free for adverbs. They don't inflect for concordance so they DO have to be near the verbs they modify (unlike the situation with nouns and adjectives in Latin verse). Also, the classical vocative of deus is quite well-attested: It's di (plural)...See Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.2. If you were addressing just one god, you would have used his name.... – C Monsour Sep 03 '20 at 23:58
  • Also, it's not clear that there is a church Latin vocative singular for deus either. There's a strong argument that when it seems to be used as a vocative, it's actually a nominative. See this question https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/4904/why-not-agne-dei – C Monsour Sep 04 '20 at 00:00
  • Would it be correct to go with Ubi deus designit as "where god ends" ? – Mads Vestergaard Sep 05 '20 at 20:27
  • @MadsVestergaard "Hic finitur deus" is correct and good Latin. "Designit" is not. (You probably mean "designat", but that still does not mean "ends".) – Sebastian Koppehel Sep 05 '20 at 20:39
  • I will go with that then, thank you so much! You have been a huge help! Again thank you! – Mads Vestergaard Sep 05 '20 at 20:41