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Line 69:
** 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.
** This became a plot point in ''[[
** 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.
** In ''[[
** 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]]''.
Line 84:
** 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.
** In ''[[
** ''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 ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
* 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.
* Being set in the ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' universe, the ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' novels are similarly lousy with the stuff:
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