Canis Latinicus: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|'''Mike:''' Lots of multi-syllabic non-words in this story?

 

In a show rife with magic users or scientific terminology, [[Altum Videtur|Latin is the gear of choice]]. It's exotic-sounding, it has a word for almost everything, and it's fairly well-known. With Latin by your side, you can spout off any string of awesomeness you want, and easily throw in a few less-than-Latin bits—want to name your New World Monkey "Callithrix [[George W. Bush|dubyabush]]?" Go for it!

 

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== ANIMICVS ET MANGVS ==

* Many of the episode titles in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' are in Latin-ish. However, The original manga [[Shown Their Work|takes care to get all of its Latin, ancient Greek, and other languages correct, and has translations and commentary in the English-language Del Rey and Kodansha USA releases]].

== FILMICVS -- LIVVS ACTIONICVS ==

* ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian]]'' gives us another round of [[Punny Name|punny names]], such as [[Gag Penis|Biggus Dickus]] and his wife Incontinentia Buttocks. The trope as a whole, though, is parodied in the scene where a Roman centurion makes Brian painstakingly correct the grammar of his "Romans Go Home" graffiti. It is a perennial favorite among cool high-school Latin teachers (though he uses the term "locative" incorrectly).

* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Enchanted]]'' makes all her magical incantations in something Latinesque.

* The mission scene in ''[[Beavis and Butthead]] [[The Movie|Do America]]'' has background music whose text, the score's composer admits in a DVD feature (and demonstrates in the manuscript score), runs: "''Scrotum agitato, Ignoramus, Genitilis longuis, Hemorrhidus burnum'' all day long."

* The original version of Disney film ''The Shaggy Dog'' and its sequel ''The Shaggy DA'' had the incantation "in canis corpore transmuto" — which in real Latin would mean "I change into the body of a dog".

{{quote|'''Charley:''' ''Dominus vobiscum nabisco. Espiritu sanctum. De gustibus. Me gustibus. You gustibus. We missed the bus. They missed the bus. When's the next bus? Summa cum laude. Magna cum laude. The radio's too laude. Adeste fidelis. Centra fidelis. High fidelis. Post meridian. Ante meridian. Uncle meridian. All of the little meridians. Magna carta. Master charga. Dum procellas. Lotsa Vitalis.'' }}

 

** For starters, the city's mottos are: ''Quanti canicula ille in fenestra'', or "How much is that doggie in the window," and ''Merus in pectum et in aquam'', or "Pure in heart and water", [[Blatant Lies|for a city whose river is so polluted you could skateboard across it (''especially'' in the summer)]].

** The City Watch's motto is ''[[Dirty Harry|Fabricati Diem Pvnc]]'', apparently an abbreviated form of a previous motto (''Fabricati Diem, Pvncti Agvnt Celeriter'' -- "make the day, the moments will pass quickly"), which LOOKS as though it means "make my day, punk", but doesn't - but one the members is convinced it means "To Protect and Serve". Since at least one of them seems to be able to translate Latatian quite well otherwise, it's possible they're just fooling themselves.

** The motto of Lord Vetinari is "Sic non confectus, non reficiat" which is said to translate as "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

** Occult uses of Canis Latinicus include the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] ''Liber Paginarum Fulvarum'', which translates as "The Book of Yellow Pages".

** The motto for Unseen University is ''Nunc id Vides, Nunc ne Vides'', or "Now you see it, now you don't."

** The Fool's Guild has ''Dico, Dico, Dico'', or "I say, I say, I say"—a classic stage performer's line.

** Elsewhere in the same book, Vimes comes upon the remains of a statue of General Tacticus (an ancient Morporkian war hero, better at conquering than Alexander the Great), the plinth of which bears the motto "Ab hoc possum videre domum tuum," or "I can see your house from up here." This is noted to have been both a boast ''and'' a threat.

** The motto of the extended [[Grim Reaper|Death]] family is ''Non Timetis Messor''. The literal translation is ''Have No Timidity Towards He Who Gathers The Harvest'', or in plain English, ''[[Blue Öyster Cult|Don't Fear The Reaper]]''.

** In a similar vein, Nanny Ogg translates her favorite [[Bawdy Song]], for Casanunda's benefit, as "Il Porcupino Nil Sodomy Est" ("The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered"). Naturally, the full lyrics are never given.

** Quoting this stuff is, of course, a favorite pastime of the Lawyers Guild and by extension, its head [[Amoral Attorney|Mr Slant]]. Amusingly a lot of what he says sounds like complete nonsense, like citing someone should be released from prison on the grounds of something that translates as "pockets full of fish", but it always has actual precedent in Ankh-Morpork law. (In that case, someone was thrown into a lake, but since their pockets filled with fish, the judge determined that the whole experience had been a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|net benefit]] and the thrower could not be prosecuted.) This is a thematic reference to real-world legal examples known by funny names, such as the "fertile octogenarian", the "unborn widow", and the "[[Team Fortress 2|magical gravel pit]]". A technicality of inheritance law, known as the "rule against perpetuities", has spawned a number of such seeming absurdities.

** ''Jingo'' has him quote the doctrine of "acquiris quodcumque rapis" ("you get what you grab") in relation to the territorial dispute at the heart of the novel's plot.

* The poem "[[wikipedia:The Motor Bus|The Motor Bus]]" by A.D. Godley declines "motor bus" in every possible way as if it actually were a Latin noun phrase. Which, technically, it ''is'', except bus is a contraction of "omnibus", which is dative plural already—the nominative singular would be "omnis". Chalk it up to poetic license.

** ''Caves of Ice'' takes place on the [[Single Biome Planet|frozen planet]] of Simia Orichalchae (which roughly translates as "brass monkey", as in "cold enough to freeze the balls off..."). There's also a reference to the planet Nusquam Fundumentibus ("arse end of nowhere").

** ''Duty Calls'' takes place on Periremunda ("lost world") and includes a plateau named Aceralbaterra, which translates as Maple White Land, [[Genius Bonus|the name of the plateau in]] [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''[[The Lost World (novel)|The Lost World]]''. Bonus points because after being discovered by Acer Alba, Periremunda was rediscovered by "Magos Provocare," a name that could be rendered as "Professor Challenger."

 

== TABLETOPIVM GAMEAE ==

** Some examples include the Administratum, the Ecclesiarchy (priests), the Senatorum Imperialis, Departmento Munitorum (Military command & logistics) and Adeptus Mechanicus. Place names show this too, along with what seems to be a healthy dose of gallows humour among the harried explorers and colonists who found themselves stuck on the nastier ones in ancient times. Examples include the ice worlds Simia Orichalchae and Nusquam Fundumentibus (respectively, Dog Latin for "Brass Monkey" and "Arse End of Nowhere").

** Not all of the examples go down quite so easy, though — there are Astra Militarum (aka Imperial Guard), the Adeptus Astartes ([[Space Marine]]s). Then there are the Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition, such as Ordo Hereticus, and Ordo Xenos (hunting heresy and aliens respectively), Ordo Excorium - (oversees [[It's the Only Way to Be Sure|Exterminatus]]), Ordo Redactus (censorship), and so on - and then there's Ordo Malleus, ostensibly named after "hammer"; the non-indicative name allowed to hide its true purpose, but it's also a reference to ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'' (the Hammer of the Witches), even though "Witchhunters" are Ordo Hereticus. Orders of Adepta Sororitas (nun sisterhoods) themselves are named colloquially (and even tastefully), but ''main types of'' those Orders are Militant, Hospitaller (medics), Dialogous (linguists and translators) and Famulous (diplomats and advisors).

*** Interstingly in the German version of the game, the name of the Lancea Sancta is spelled correctly, ie Lancea Sancta. So no need for a justification. This could be due to the fact that Latin classes are still quite common in German High Schools so chances are high that one of the translators knew his Latin.

** "Ordo Dracul" is stranger still: ''Dracul'' is not Latin, but ''Romanian'' for "the dragon" or "the devil"; the ''-ul'' ending translates as the article "the".

** The original "Monster Manual" included Dog Latin versions of taxonomic names for its ten varieties of dragon (genus ''Draco''). Some of these were puns, particularly the ''Draco Comes Stabuli'', the "constable" [[Don't Explain the Joke|or "copper"]] dragon.

** The third edition undead manual is called ''Libris Mortis'', a name which sounds pretty good, but doesn't actually work because of the similarity of the words for "book" and "free". ''Liber Mortis'' would be ''Book of the Dead,'' but ''Libris Mortis'' works out to "of the Dead Book". The much of the community even calls it the "Book of Bad Latin"

 

 

* In the ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' universe, all the Covenant species, in addition to having a nickname (e.g., "Elites") and a formal name ("Sangheili"), also have a faux-Latin scientific name ("Macto cognatus"). You can read all the names and the meanings behind them in [http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive29.pl?read=865756 this forum post].

* The names of the skills in ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]'' have dog-Latin translations.

* ''[[Lost]]: Via Domus'' is an egregious example. In the game, Locke translates the [[Title Drop]] as "The Way Home," which is apparently what the game creators meant, except that it would be Via Domum. This is actually pretty funny when you realize that it's the same mistake as in ''Life of Brian'' above. Most people just call it ''Lost: The Game'' though, because that's funny too.

* There's an online game called ''Gladiatus: Hero of Rome''. It ([[Did Not Do the Research|ostensibly]]) involves playing as a Gladiator in Ancient Rome. The title is nothing short of weird, considering it seems to be a "Latinized" version of the word "gladiator." Especially considering that the Latin word for "gladiator" is, (surprise!) "gladiator". While ''gladiator'' essentially means ''sword-user'' (swordsman), ''gladiatus'' would be closer to ''someone on whom a sword is used'', [[Ironic Name|which fits, but probably not in the way they were hoping]].

* Of all the ''[[Pokémon]]'', only Oddish has a confirmed scientific name: "Oddium Wanderus".

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', the opening song is called "Liberi Fatali", intended to mean "children of fate" or "fated children". "Liberi" is a nominative plural noun meaning "children", which they got right. "Fatali" is a singular dative/ablative adjective whose root is "fatalis," or "fated," and while the word is right, the case and number are wrong, the proper phrase should be "Liberi Fatales" or "Liberi Fati." [[Word of God]] says that this was an oversight.

* The [[All in The Manual|manual]] for ''[[Command & Conquer|Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Firestorm]]'' includes "scientific" notes of Dr. Boudreau. These notes have information on the new [[Green Rocks|tiberium]]-based lifeforms that have "evolved" in contaminated areas. One of these is commonly known as the tiberium fiend. The eggheads felt the need to label it Canis Tiberius, even though Boudreau herself points out that the fiend has nothing in common with canines, except looking vaguely similar. Dogs aren't generally known for shooting [[Green Rock]] spikes at you from their backs. They also aren't horse-sized.

* The Piranicus Giganticus (a giant Piranha Plant) from the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series games.

** Parodied with [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0253.html strip #253], where Larry Gardener (himself a parody of [[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]) casts ''Stoppus Badguyus''.

** The strip also uses it to parody [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0635.html here].

 

== WEBVS ORIGINALIA ==

** [[Terry Pratchett]] has an extinct species of turtle ([[Discworld|what else?]]) (Psephophorus terrypratchetti) named after him, and keeps a fossil of it on his desk.

** ''Gingoites nannyoggiae'', (at least, as reported by the Art of Discworld), the scientific name of a particular Mesozoic plant.

** At first, ''[[Jurassic Park]]'''s movie [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying|looked a bit odd to palaeontologists]], as the "velociraptors" were far too large. Then along came a discovery of a raptor-family dinosaur in Utah, every bit as big as the raptors in the movie and even bigger. It was dubbed ''Utahraptor spielbergi''. Technically, the animal is now called ''Utahraptor ostrommaysorum''. Another scientist, however, named a species of pterosaur (flying reptiles related to the dinosaurs) of the genus ''Coloborhynchus'', "''Coloborhynchus spielbergi''", although its validity as a separate species of ''Coloborhynchus'' is currently under debate.

** John Cleese has [[wikipedia:Bemaraha Woolly Lemur|a lemur]] named after him. As far as cuteness goes, he wins.

* The South African legal term of "crimen injuria": what it's intended to mean is "crime of unlawful damage [to dignity]," i.e., criminal racism, but "injuria" is nominative, and "crimen" means "charge," not "crime." Translated faithfully, it could only mean "unlawful damage to a criminal charge."

* In the history of the Modern Greek language, there was a period called Katharevousa, which sought to purify the language of non-Greek influences and to adequately hellenize foreign place names. However, this was done in a rather haphazard manner, sometimes in ignorance of the actual Greek names that places already had. One of simplest ways to adapt place names was to calque Latin script spellings to Greek letters (actual letter pronunciation differences be damned), and add the feminine suffix -η (-i), or to change a feminine-looking -a to -η. Barcelona, Spain was rehellenized as Βαρκελώνη (Varkeloni), in ignorance that the classical language already had a name for this—Βαρκινών (Barkinōn). It could get rather silly with place names of much more recent origin; Boston became Βοστώνη (Vostoni), Frankfurt became Φραγκφούρτη (Fragkfourti), etc. Katharevousa Greek ceased being an official language anywhere by 1982, and now the more usual practice is to adapt foreign names phonetically in pronunciation and spelling, such as Tόκυο for Tokyo. Meanwhile, many naturally-evolved Greek words for (now-)foreign place names are kept, such as Ἀγκυρα (Agkyra) for Ankara, Turkey, which was Ankūra in classical times.

 

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[[Category:Ancient Rome]]

[[Category:Artistic License Linguistics]]

[[Category:Language Tropes]]

[[Category:This Trope Name References Itself]]

[[Category:Gratuitous Foreign Language]]

[[Category:Urban Fantasy Tropes]]

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