Canis Latinicus: Difference between revisions

 

{{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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{{examples|Examplae}}

== 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]].

** 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.

** One of the books is titled ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'' ("get the jugular" or "go for the throat") after the motto of a family of Vampires.

** In ''[[Discworld/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'', we get [[Fun with Foreign Languages|a dodgy etymology]] of "teleport": "It comes from ''tele'', meaning 'I see,' and 'porte,' meaning 'to go,' the whole meaning 'I see it's gone.'"

* 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.