4

I want to write a motto for self-control: Don't be a slave!

Google Translate translated that to: "Ne fiat servus".

I do not know whether that is correct, or whether I should write "servis" insead.

So, What would be a better translation?

Joonas Ilmavirta
  • 113,294
  • 21
  • 192
  • 587
SmootQ
  • 143
  • 5

1 Answers1

3

First of all, Google Translate is horrible with Latin and should not be trusted at all. It fails here, too. I would translate "Ne fiat servus" as "May he not become a slave". It is a reasonable wish for a third party, but not what you wanted to express.

There is a simple way to say "don't X" in Latin: just say noli X, where X is an infinitive form of a verb. The verb "to be" is esse, so "don't be" would be noli esse. Then we need to add the slave, and it should be in the singular nominative form servus. (Servis would be plural dative of ablative.) This construction is attested in classical Latin; see this question for details.

This leads to: Noli esse servus.

Joonas Ilmavirta
  • 113,294
  • 21
  • 192
  • 587
  • 1
    Somehow I would expect something more compact than noli esse, but I can't think what. Noli servare would not mean the same thing. – Colin Fine Mar 07 '19 at 00:03
  • 1
    @ColinFine Noli servare is a good option! Can you give that as a separate answer? I am always happy to see a number of answers proposing different approaches. – Joonas Ilmavirta Mar 07 '19 at 07:28
  • 1
    @JoonasIlmavirta Thank you so much for this detailed answer, yes, even though I do not know Latin, I sensed that something is wrong with Google translate... Best +1 ! – SmootQ Mar 07 '19 at 10:13
  • @JoonasIlmavirta: the reason I did not give noli servare as a separate answer is that I'm not sure it fits. In English "do not serve" and "do not be a servant" (never mind "a slave") are rather different, and I don't know whether that difference carries over into Latin or not. – Colin Fine Mar 07 '19 at 16:08
  • 2022 update: Google Translate is much better at Latin now, and it suggests almost the same translation as you did: “Noli servus esse!” –  Jul 12 '22 at 19:52
  • @Anserin If you have updates on how Google fares with Latin nowadays, you can always write up an answer to the linked Google question. The question and the other answers contain plenty of examples to check for improvement. – Joonas Ilmavirta Jul 12 '22 at 22:23