Is there a site that will translate Latin? I never took Latin, and while I can often get the gist of phrases, it would be nice to have a site that could fill in the gaping holes in my vocabulary. I came across the italicised phrase below, and while I I know that there are many people who post here capable of translating it for me, I have no intention of asking for a translation every time I get stuck. A web-based translator would be a great asset for the semi-literate, it could be said to be "pro utilate hominem."
Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit.
Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit.As it happens, I found the translation. I was only missing the verb - I had successfully discerned that "a wise man doesn't 'mingit' against the wind", and just needed to have "mingit" translated. That's why a site like babelfish would come in handy, to supply key words that are unfamiliar. If nothing like it exists, would anyone care to rectify that?
as long as you bring it up, retromingent is a very odd word derived from Latin.
http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/rst.htm#retromingent
retromingentHow does one do that? And please don't say, "with great difficulty" or "very carefully"
a wise man doesn't 'mingit' against the wind",
Having not taken any Latin, but living in a generation where one's peers thrive on unconspicuously crude jokes and quotes, I'm guessing that 'mingit' means urinate.
"mingit"
I wonder if that would help with a current popular Scottish slang word - "minging" - usually pronounced mingin', apparantly means smelly or dirty but applied to anything unpleasant.
The only reference in a dictionary I can find is in Websters which says it means minced which doesn't work at all for current usage.
>I wonder if that would help with a current popular Scottish slang word - "minging" - usually pronounced mingin', apparantly means smelly or dirty but applied to anything unpleasant<
Do either mingit or mingin relate to mingy? I always assumed that it came from 'mean' and 'stingy' (and that's what Cambridge on-line said - thanks for bringing the listing back up tsuwm!), but now I'm not so sure
M-W says "perhaps" a blend of mean and stingy -- so they don't know (or aren't saying ;)
Is there a site that will translate Latin? My colleague (who took a first in Classics) has provided me with the following:-
Perseus project at Tufts is the best source - there's a mirror at Oxford:
http://perseus.csad.ox.ac.uk/A version of Lewis & Short is available at
http://perseus.csad.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=Latin More general lexica and text tools at
http://perseus.csad.ox.ac.uk/lexica.html(the oxford site is sometimes down - to get to the original substitute
tufts.edu for
csad.ox.ac.uk. There's also a mirror in Berlin
http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de)Happy translating!
(just realised this is my 100th post. I'm really glad that it is an attempt to be constructive and helpful, rather my usual outpouring of pomposity, poor puns and poking fun at others)
my 100th post
Congratulations!
(Am I the first to have cent this message?)
There's not been a scent of any one else - many thanks, boyo
not been a scent of any one elseThey obviously lack the cents and/or scentsability
my sincerest contrafibularities on hitting the tonne, and what a wonderfully helpful way to mark the occasion. Thank you very much for those excellent resources.
lack the cents and/or scentsability
You're too harsh - if they haven't the scents it is probably because the haven't the Thyme.
My pleasure.
contrafibularities
This is a new word to me! Why should you wish to set anything against my shin bone?
>contrafibularities This is a new word to me! <
I guess this would be the lawyers term for "withershins"
.
contrafibularities - - - the lawyers term for "withershinsExcellent! Would it also equate to the swashbuckling pirate's phrase. "Shiver me timbers." (thinking of John Silver's wooden leg).
BTW, any idea as to what a "swash" is, and where one would buckle it?
Well, guru gives this for swash:
Swagger or bluster.
A swaggering or blustering person
So I guess you place your buckle ostentatiously!
Do either mingit or mingin relate to mingy?
The idea of mean and stingy sounds reasonable for mingy.
Mingin' has a hard "g" like singing so I've never thought of it as being realted to stingy with its soft "g".
>contrafibularities
This could be something to do with pulling the other leg so Long John Silver maybe on the right track.
>Having not taken any Latin, but living in a generation where one's peers thrive on unconspicuously crude jokes and quotes, I'm guessing that 'mingit' means urinate.
And your guess would be exactly right. Something about the Latin verb mingo rang a tiny bell in the back of my mind. In it's major parts it is mingo, mingere, micti, mictus, I suspect, an etymological echo of the verb fingo, fingere, ficti, fictus, which is the one I do remember from my two years of Latin MANY years ago. (Fingere means to form.) I looked up micturate, which means urinate, and the dictionary obligingly reported that the word comes from micturire, to want to urinate, from mingere, to urinate.
micturate, which means urinateI have for many years wondered if "micturate" is the word that is shortened in "Taking the Mick" - not least because of the less polite form in which that sentiment is sometimes expressed.
or am I micturating up the wrong tree?
What, pray tell, is "taking the Mick?"
Taking the mickey = poking fun, often Irish
sometimes referred to as "extracting the Michael"
never known who Michael was though!
contrafibularitiesSorry! That word is a reference to a very funny episode of the British comedy series "Blackadder." The episode involves Dr. Samuel Johnson and his dictionary. There is a scene in which Johnson boasts that his dictionary includes every word in the English language. Blackadder extends his "contrafibularities" as part of a ninety second monologue full of made up words - it's very funny, at least I found it to be so.
EBlackadder: "Contrafibularities, sir. It is a common word down our way."
SJohnson: "Damn!"
EB: "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm anaspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericumbobulation."
.
.
EB: "Of course, sir. I shall return...interfrastically."
.
.
KingGeorge : "Look, Doctor Johnson, I may be as thick as a whale omelette, but even *I* know a book's got to have a plot."
You are a prince!Thanks for that, I shall dig up my old tapes now and watch it again. One of my favourites was the definition offered for the letter "C": "Big blue wobbly thing what mermaids live in."
Certainly in Australia, "taking the piss" is a well-known expression, although Olympic drug-testing officialdom has imparted a more literal meaning to the phrase.
Looks like Max has still to find a "babelfish" for Latin....
sic transit gloria ciber(sic)-mundi
>the definition offered for the letter "C": "Big blue wobbly thing what mermaids live in." <
Moving the subject on again entirely, can anyone assist me with the missing parts of the following alphabet. I never knew and my father has forgotten...
'Ay for 'orses
Beef or mutton
Sea for ships
Dee for salmon
'Eave a brick
Effervescent
G?
H?
Ivor Novello
J?
K?
'Ell for leather
Emphasis
N?
Over the Rainbow
P?
Queue for buses
'Arf a mo
Esther Rantzen
Tea for two
You for me
V?
Double you for quits
X?
Wife o' mine
Z?
well, I was bafflefished as to "Esther Rantzen" and so I googled this marvel[l]ous ref:
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Stage/5786/britcult.html
oh, and lest I forget
here's the link to the Cockney Alphabet:
http://www.phespirit.demon.co.uk/ck_alpha.htm
Love the link twu
Ah dear Esther, not sure she's be pleased to be so close to Enoch Powell but then that's life.
I had no idea there were so many alternatives. Just too many witty people in the world, I guess. The alternatives on my list that haven't been covered by Bridget or by tsuwm's Cockney website reference are:
E for Adam (Eve or Adam)
K for Ancis (Kaye Francis)
N for a Dig ("infra dig", beneath one's dignity)
S for Williams (Esther Williams)
U for Mism (euphemism)
Y for Heaven's Sake
Thank you tsuwm and Marty!