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I found this phrase written inside the back cover of my Latin textbook. My tentative translation doesn't make a whole lot of sense in any sort of normal way and I don't remember the translation my magistella came up with since it didn't seem to relate to the individual Latin words. Can any of our Latin scholars help me?
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I found this phrase written inside the back cover of my Latin textbook.
Which phrase? Your subject line?
In the back of one of my older Latin textbooks, the reader is instructed to stand on the book in case of flood as it will "always be dry".
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Faldage is out for a while, nuncle, but I know he was hoping you or Bingley or BobY or some nother would help him/us figure it out. I have an idea, but I'm a mere Roma wannabe.
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Anna, sorry but the subject line is already in English. Eat more possum. An opossum is a large marsupial that looks freakishly like a large albino rat. Possum is also the first person present indicative of posse 'to be able; can' (made famous in the phrase posse comitatus 'sheriff's posse'. So, I don't know if I can help.
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sorry but the subject line is already in English
Well, I'm guessing that's the whole point. Like the bastard Latin in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, only the other way around.
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Well, I'm guessing that's the whole point.
Quicquid! Glad to be of service as the butt of his joke. I see it's also a hemistich from a Jimmy Dorsey song about Dixie.
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Eat is the 3rd person singular, present tense, subjunctive of ire, to go.
More is the ablative singular of mos, moris, habit, custom, manner.
Possum is, as nuncle mentioned, 1st person singular, present tense, indicative of posse (old style, potesse), to be able.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
An opossum is a large marsupial that looks freakishly like a large albino rat. Possum is also the first person present indicative of posse 'to be able;
Up in this part of the world, possum also means a large marsupial, or, more accurately here in Zild, about 90 million large marsupials. Having actually eaten possum, I can advise against doing so, especially in Australia, where possums enjoy full protection under the law. They also don't taste very nice.
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journeyman
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So... ummm... eat more possum is a "Caesar adsum jam forte" that means... ummm... "Let him/her go in the way I can"? There must be a better joke in there. I'm missing something.
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So, your subject line "means" He/She/it may go by custom; I am able to _____.
Here's one for the others, from an inscription on a old vase: DATIS IN PINCV LAPOTVS COLONIA.
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In re translationis Jenetis
Fiddle faddle. It is true that eat is in the subjunctive, but if so, why? There is no occasion for it in this sentence except possibly as the hortatory subjunctive, but try making any sense out of that, particularly as you would have another verb, possum, in the indicative.
I suspect this is some arcane schoolboy joke (in English). And incidentally, there are people who think that possums make great eating.
Latin mottos and short quotes are notoriously difficult to grasp and translate since they generally are greatly condensed and often have peculiar word order. An example is the motto of the State of Maryland on the Great Seal: Scuto bonae voluntatis tuae coronasti nos.
Have a go at that one. There are two schools of thought about the usage, hence the exact meaning, of 'scuto'.
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there are people who think that possums make great eating.
Don't be confusing possum with 'possum. Two totally nother animals.
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>Don't be confusing possum with 'possum. Two totally nother animals.
Which is the point I was trying to make, obliquely.
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I was just trying to splain BobY that. Not sure he got the point.
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Indeed. The error in my last post was that I forgot to include a thanks for the assist. I'm not sure BobY would want to eat our possums, given that they are the major vector for bovine TB in NZ. That's a cross-species contamination I'm not willing to risk any more.
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Faldage, if you and max are trying to make the point that the Zildian marsupial is a possum and the American one is a 'possum, I have to cry Nitpicking! I don't believe I've ever heard anyone use the full form, opossum, except in a technical context and I don't think you find it with an apostrophe in the dictionary. Are you going to tell us that the plural of possum is possa?
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>Faldage, if you and max are trying to make the point that the Zildian marsupial is a possum and the American one is a 'possum, I have to cry Nitpicking!
Not I. The point I was trying to make was exactly as Faldage stated it, that they are two completely diferent animals, nothing more. The point was made relevant by your comment that some people like eating possums. Unless you've spent time in Oz or Zild, I think I can state with confidence that you've never eaten one of our possums.
EDIT I've just noticed that said disease-carrying, kiwi-killing, flora-munching pests were called "Zildian". Not so. They're an Oz invasion, and we would happily send them all back, if we could.
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And from what I gather about our USA 'possums, they ain't really that good--kinda like eating baked grease wrapped in skin.
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I merely included the apostrophe in the name of the USn beast to distinguish it from the antipodean one. As for nit-picking, my reputation exceeds me.
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Mmmmmmmmmm baked grease, wrapped in skin. Is it salted?
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journeyman
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More latin. I'm feeling so robbed right now. Who is the youngest latin enthusiast here?
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Would make an interesting poll: "On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your knowledge of Latin"--and show your age.
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Pooh-Bah
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The recipe for cooking antipodean opossum is pretty much the same as for cooking the New Zealand mountain parrot, the kea:
1. Boil the possum with a large stone for five hours
2. Throw away the possum and eat the stone.
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I've never eaten possum and don't care to try it. I wondered how you cook it, so I had a look at that classic standard "Joy of Cooking" and, of course, there's a recipe. It starts out in the manner of Mrs. Beeton, "If possible, trap 'possum' and feed it on milk and cereals for 10 days before killing." It then goes on to tell you how to remove the hair and glands, then tells you to parboil it in 2 or 3 changes of water, then roast as for pork and serve with turnip greens. Ugh! Capfka's recipe is about right. Aside from the issue that if you're going to keep the critter around and feed it for a week and a half, you might as well make a pet of it.
But then there is muskrat. In former times you could always find skinned dressed muskrats in the markets. The law required that their heads be left on so you knew what it was. A gruesome sight, but they did sell. There is an Episcopal Church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland which raises money by an annual muskrat dinner in the fall. People come from hundreds, even thousands, of miles for this. (Muskrats are abundant in the marshes along the eastern shores of the Chesapeake Bay and there are lots caught by traplines). Incidentally, JofC's directions for this go, "Remove all fat from hams and shoulders of 1 muskrat, which are the only edible portions. Remove musk glands and white stringy tissue attached. Poach in salted water 45 minutes and drain. Place cut-up meat in a Dutch oven and cover with bacon strips, add 1 c. water or light stock, 1 sm. sliced onion, 1 bay leaf, 3 cloves, 1/2 tsp. thyme, cover & simmer until very tender. Serve with creamed celery." Creamed celery???????? even my grandmother never cooked that.
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Your grandmother never cooked creamed celery?
I guess mine did--I remember eating it as a child but never cooked it for my children.
Campbell's cream of celery soup seems to be a perrenial, though.
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You can eat muskrat. Well I'll be. We have some up at our summer cottage. Hmmmm.
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