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How would you say "A butterfly is landing on a flower." in Latin? Specifically, which word would you use for "to land"?

In a song called "Aeromiting u vrtu", sung by Oliver Dragojević, the author uses the very-Latin-sounding word "aterira" for that. Was there a Latin word such as "atterrare" (from "ad" + "terra") for "to land"? I cannot find it in a dictionary, but I doubt the songwriter made that word up.

FlatAssembler
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2 Answers2

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I would guess what you heard in the song is based on the French verb atterrir. Il atterrira means he/it will land. This verb was invented by the French and has no direct Latin equivalent, as far as I can see, although all its components are Latinate, of course.

In Latin I would use considere or assidere, which are both used of birds and bees (did not find an example for a butterly), e.g. Livy, Ab urbe condita 7, 26:

Romano corvus repente in galea consedit
a raven suddenly sat down on the Roman's helmet

Or Sueton, Tiberius 14:

aquila numquam antea Rhodi conspecta in culmine domus eius assedit
an eagle never before seen on Rhodos sat down on the highest top of his house

So you could say: Papilio in flore assidit.

Sebastian Koppehel
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    By the way, I don't know how it works in Croatian, but a German speaker would not bat an eye at the dative Romano; however, English speakers are possibly scratching their heads why I translated this as "the Roman's." Think like, "it happened to the Roman that a raven sat on the [= his] helmet." – Sebastian Koppehel Jun 27 '23 at 21:07
  • Well, it's possible that the dialectal Croatian word in that song comes from French. The city of Split, where Oliver Dragojević lived, was under the French occupation for much of the 19th century. No wonder some words in that dialect come from French. – FlatAssembler Jun 27 '23 at 21:43
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    One could also consider the influence on Croatian of the Italian atterrare (itself a calque from the French), – Denis Nardin Jun 28 '23 at 09:21
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    @Sebastian Koppehel: Could "in Romano galea" be translated as (ablative) = "on the Roman helmet"? Would your choice be called a "dative-of-possession"? – tony Jun 28 '23 at 10:59
  • @SebastianKoppehel The dative is probably good here for all Slavic languages, definitely for Czech. – Vladimir F Героям слава Jun 28 '23 at 14:28
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    @tony At least in the modern languages I know the word in dative is not bound directly to the noun helmet, it is bound directly to the verb. Similarly in German "Er ist mir auf den Fuß getreten." The collocation is https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/jemandem_auf_die_F%C3%BC%C3%9Fe_treten "Literally, he stepped on the foot to me." – Vladimir F Героям слава Jun 28 '23 at 14:38
  • Would in florem work better than in flore? – Figulus Jun 29 '23 at 00:28
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    @Figulus: Is that because "in florem" = "into the flower", giving: "The butterfly lands inside the flower."? – tony Jun 29 '23 at 11:18
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    @tony Well, Romano galea wouldn't work, would it? I believe this is called the dative of reference, by the way. (The distinction from an "indirect object" is not clear cut.) – Sebastian Koppehel Jun 29 '23 at 16:20
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    @Figulus No, these words are generally constructed with a place where. See L & S ... – Sebastian Koppehel Jun 29 '23 at 16:32
  • @tony Not really. I was just thinking that the English verb landing is a verb of motion, so I wrongly assumed the same for its Latin counterpart. After studying the examples Sebastian gave us, I can see that is not exactly right. I still can't claim to understand why not, though. – Figulus Jun 30 '23 at 04:07
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The verb insido+Dative.(I edited because of the corrector) Vergilius gave us a good example: "“apes floribus insidunt,” Verg. A. 6, 708"