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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Method of murder #163555 11/17/2006 10:15 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 What Latin phrase might be used for "method of murder" on the model of "modus operandi"? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Method of murder #163556 11/17/2006 10:49 AM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Allowing for the fact that one doesn't necessarily just plug in words, I'd suggest modus caedis. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Method of murder #163557 11/17/2006 4:31 PM Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 557 Dallas, TX Myridon addict Myridon addict Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 557 Dallas, TX When I took Latin, our favorite verb for "to kill" was interficere because it's literally "to make/do between" - killing someone by slicing them up. Cannibals have a modus interfectionis. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Method of murder #163558 11/17/2006 4:44 PM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh Why not go for a parallel style and use the gerund (verbal noun)? Modus interficiendi. Ceci n'est pas un seing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Method of murder #163559 11/17/2006 5:54 PM Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 557 Dallas, TX Myridon addict Myridon addict Joined: Oct 2005 Posts: 557 Dallas, TX Because it's been about 24 years and the noun was in the dictionary and the gerund wasn't and I could vaguely recall that facere is irregular and there's something weird about oper... Now I've done my homework, I was confusing facere with its irregular passive cousin fieri and operari is a deponent verb. It turns out neither of those those things matter in forming the gerund so, yes, I agree "modus interficiendi" is better. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Method of murder #163560 11/17/2006 9:21 PM Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 293 Orlando ParkinT enthusiast ParkinT enthusiast Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 293 Orlando Ethod-may of Urder-may ? "I am certain there is too much certainty in the world" -Michael Crichton Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Method of murder #163561 11/18/2006 7:34 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 What about "modus interfeci"? Is that ungrammatical? It gets about 22 Google-hits, all webpages in Latin; while "modus interficiendi" gets 0 G-hits (not that that necessarily means anything). Last edited by Hydra; 11/18/2006 7:35 AM. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: murthering syntax #163562 11/18/2006 2:32 PM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh What about "modus interfeci"? Is that ungrammatical? Well, it's hard to understand. Modus is the singular nominative form of a noun, and interfeci is the first person singular active present perfect form of a verb. It could mean something like: I, the manner, have killed (it), but it doesn't mean the manner of killing. All the pages which Google finds are German and offline. Scanning at them they don't seem to make any sense in Latin. Most of the words are in their lemmatized dictionary citation form. It looks more like lorem ipsum greeked text used for some kind of page-ranking scheme. [Minor typo correction and added link.] Last edited by zmjezhd; 11/18/2006 2:37 PM. Ceci n'est pas un seing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: murthering syntax #163563 11/19/2006 7:26 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Thanks for clearing that up. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: murthering syntax #163564 11/19/2006 8:07 AM Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 Hydra addict Hydra addict Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 631 modus interficiendi One more thing: Is that a hard "c" (FEK-Y) or soft (FESH-Y)? Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: murthering syntax #163565 11/19/2006 12:17 PM Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Depends on what kind Latin you're speaking. In Classical Latin it would be a K sound, in Italianate Church Latin it would be a CH sound, in German Church Latin a TS sound and in (God forbid) USn legal Latin the whole thing would probably be pronounced MOHD iss inter fih SIGN die. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. 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