What does 'fac et gaudium' mean?

Question

What does 'fac et gaudium' mean? Or is it just a fragment? Found in old notebook. I know it's something to do with taking action and then delight, but the sense is unclear to me.

Answer 1

(Converting two old comments into a new answer, as requested)

It appears that et is a typo, and the phrase should be fac ut gaudeam – literally, 'Make me glad.'

In the book Latin for all occasions, Henry Beard uses fac ut gaudeam to render the line 'Make my day' from the Clint Eastwood film Sudden impact (p 56, under the heading 'Timeless lines from the movies').

Answer 2

I would translate it as "and make joy" or perhaps "make joy, too". This does not feel like fully idiomatic Latin to me, but the sense seems to be: "remember to enjoy among other things".

The imperative fac (which sounds remarkably much like the English swear word) means "make" or "do".

The word et is often translated as "and", but it can mean many kinds of addition. Perhaps "too" or "also" would fit better here. Without further context — which presumably does not exist in a throwaway remark in an old notebook — is is hard to judge. In my more verbose translation I translated et as "among other things".

There are many words for different kinds of joy, and gaudium is one of them. Here is an older question comparing some of the Latin joy words.

A far more idiomatic way to say "enjoy!" would be gaude! instead of fac gaudium!. I guess this construction is a calque of the writer's primary language, possibly Italian with its ubiquitous fare.