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Etymology of Nausicaa?

There was an interesting question on Lit regarding a proposed meaning of Nausicaa as "burner of ships". Although I don't have an issue with the ναῦς/κάω hypothesis, I suspect κάω is more likely used in the sense of "passion" as opposed to literal…
DukeZhou
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Understanding vowel quantity in fieri

The verb fieri has an unusual conjugation, and one of the weird aspects is the long I before many vowels: fīō, fīās, fīet… Why is the I long? Does the origin of the verb (which I have no idea of) explain this…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Books of reading medieval Latin manuscripts

I would like to learn how to read medieval Latin manuscripts, but they often use abbreviations/shorthand. What are some books that would help me read these manuscripts?
Geremia
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Is Pluto a planet(a)?

Judging by Lewis and Short (and other sources), planeta means a wandering star and was borrowed from Greek. Apparently the word is post-classical, and the classical expression is stellae errantes/erraticae/errones, used (almost?) exclusively in…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Translating "destroy the bad" for a tattoo

I am considering a tattoo in Latin, and I want it to say "destroy the bad", or perhaps "get rid of the evil". I want the translation to be short due to space constraints. I looked online and I found exitium for "destroy" and malus for "bad". Would…
DAHardman
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Hushing with a finger gesture

I was reading Dante's Divine Comedy, and this verse caught my attention (Hell 25.45 with my translation): mi puosi 'l dito su dal mento al naso I put my finger up from my chin to my nose This is the typical finger gesture for hushing (image…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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How did the Latin past participle suffix -atus develop into modern French -é?

How did the Latin past participle suffix -atus develop into modern French -é? Considering the two following examples: modern French état ("state; status") and été ("been"). Both derives ultimately from the Latin past participle status. But while the…
Vun-Hugh Vaw
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Latin phrase, modelled on "horror vacui", for the fear of "equality"?

A usual latin phrase is horror vacui, which in English can be rendered as fear of emptiness. Question: what do you consider a correct Latin translation of the English fear of equality? The question is mostly about the correct declension of a Latin…
guest
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How to select dictionary translations

I was looking for a translation of the word "government" and I found in Pons dictionary (German–Latin) that it could be regnum or imperium. On the other hand, I also checked it in Collins dictionary and there I found the word gubernatio. I know that…
Alfie González
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Is it possible to have a single Latin ligature be majuscule and minuscule?

Context The Latin grapheme: "Œ" is the majuscule ligature of the letters "O" and "E". Is it proper—or in-fact possible—to have part of the ligature be majuscule and the other part be minuscule?
Michael James Carboni
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Did the Romans have children's books?

In the same vein as our other "Did the Romans have..." questions, I would like to know: Did the Romans have any children's books? I am especially interested in preserved examples, but a second-hand mention would also count. It's a common (and…
brianpck
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Alea iacta est, plural version?

I was thinking about the famous Phrase "alea iacta est", and I was wondering: how would be the plural version of it? I thought about ALEAS IACTA SUNT Because aleas needs to be in the accusative declination since it's the object and not the…
Henry
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Dative–ablative ambiguity

When I first looked into Latin, I saw in a textbook that the dative and ablative singular are the same in the second declension: nom. servus acc. servum gen. servi dat. servō abl. servō voc. serve And in the plural, the dative and ablative are the…
Ben Kovitz
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What does the "Lorem Ipsum" mean?

"Lorem ipsum" is a filler text commonly used to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation. But what does it mean? Can you give a brief review of the text's origin? Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing…
user1667
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How should particle names ending in -on be treated in Latin?

There are many particle names ending in -on in English: electron, muon, lepton, proton… How should these particle names behave in Latin? My impression is that the electron and the proton came first (I'm not sure of their naming order), and the rest…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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