"We gladly feast on those who would subdue us" was taken.

[mrissa]

(At the culmination of a long and rambling discourse about W. H. Auden, Lord Byron, Robert Frost, pameladean, and the deficiencies of the new library catalog system)
Me: But I thought it might amuse her, and so I shared.
timprov: Can we make that your Latin motto? And put it in a coat of arms?
Me: I'm fine with that. I will tell livejournal. Some of them know Latin.

Comments

[blue-hat-guru.livejournal.com]

Which new library catalog system would this be?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Dakota County Library, local to where I live in the south suburbs of the Twin Cities, has implemented a new system. Among other things, you have to go to "advanced search" every time you want to indicate subject, title, or author. And even so the results are not alphabetical card-catalog standard, they're a half-assed relevance search for what it has decided you meant by typing in the exact author or title you were looking for. All I want is a button to have semi-permanently clicked that says, "Act like I mean what I say," because when I try to search for an author whose first name is John and they decide that "John" is the important key word and give me his works intermingled with other works by persons named John and biographies of persons named John (timprov: "and a biography of Tommy John...and books about people who have ever used the john...."), that is not useful.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

That sounds like Overdrive, the one my library uses for electronic media. Often produces books that have the same letter in the title, anywhere. WTF...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's what mine uses for electronic media, too, and now the non-electronic catalog is acting very similar. Harumph harumph harumph.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

Oh dear -- my library system is about to switch to that.

It seems to work pretty well for me, and The Management assures us that it will be easier for people to search it, and -- well. There is no such thing as "people," and "half-assed relevance search" is entirely the wrong thing in lots of cases.

[blue-hat-guru.livejournal.com]

But...but...libraries are where you want keywords to be particularly relevant! Argh.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

But only when you're doing a keyword search. Not when you're searching on Dorothy Sayers and do not want The Wizard of Oz.

[blue-hat-guru.livejournal.com]

By "keywords" I meant "just look for the dang words on the dang page in the place I specified" as opposed to the google/apple/everybody-else "we'll guess what you want because we're smarter than you."

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Very rusty, but I'll take a stab:

Eam delectet credebam, ergo communicavi.

I'm not at all sure whether I'm correct in using the subjunctive there (nor whether I have used the correct subjunctive), plus whatever other errors I have made. But it's fun to dust off the Latin, so I figured I might as well try.

(Which possibly ought to be my motto . . . .)

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Not bad, but I think I like "puto" more than "credo". Also, action taking place at the same time or later than an imperfect-tense verb takes imperfect subjunctive. My stab at it would go something like:
Sed putabam fortasse id eam delectaret, ergo communicavi.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Mottos are usually on the shorter side, which is why I erred on leaving out the "but" and "it" (and on reflection, I'd drop the eam, too). Fortasse helps communicate the conditional nature of the statement, which is where I wasn't sure whether the subjunctive was doing the job, but it might be optional if you're trying to be really concise. And I seem to recall that Latin -- when it bothers with word order at all -- generally puts the main verb at the end? But I could be wrong about that/confusing it with one of the other languages I've studied.

Good catch on the tense of the subjunctive. Heck, I would have forgotten that the imperfect subjunctive is built off the infinitive; I would have made it delectebat or something like that. It's been, um, twelve years since I actually used the language.

As for puto vs. credo, it felt to me more like the sense of the original was "I believed." I had it originally as cogitabam, but that's very much more "think" in the sense of (obviously) "I cogitated" or "reasoned," which is probably not what we're after here. Puto I'm less sure about; my dictionary glosses it as "reckon, value, estimate, esteem as, think, mean, consider." It could probably go either way.

But regardless, the short, motto-friendly form would (I think) be (Fortasse) delectaret credebam/putabam, ergo communicavi. "I believed/thought it would amuse, therefore I shared."

The coat of arms, somebody else will have to design. :-)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

OK, you've done the heavy lifting, so I'll tinker:

How about avoiding the subjunctive altogether, and going for the infinitive? Does that lose the sense of 'might', uncertainty? Given that we're talking mottoes, and terseness is all?

Eam delectare putans, communicavi

My Latin's a bit medieval, but hey, it's a motto!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Medieval Latin, bah. :-)

If we're rephrasing like that -- which I think works for motto purposes; whether or not it works for Mris purposes is not for me to say -- then I'd put the whole thing into present tense. Delectare putans, communico: "Thinking to amuse [others], I share." Makes it more of a habitual thing, rather than a specific instance.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's true, I do make a habit of the thing. :)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's good, and not too expensive to have carved on a shield.

So, Mris, what else goes on the shield? I'm thinking fir tree and spaceship?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't there be a hockey stick?

[moiread]

I feel an axe should be involved somehow.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

These are all good suggestions. The fir is one of the shepherd trees from the dreams I have that used to be nightmares and aren't any more once I got my shepherd trees. (Birch and ash and fir, sometimes alder in mythically...odd...circumstances. In my waking life I am very friendly with oaks and maples and cherries and all sorts of things. But in my dreams, birch and ash and fir.)

Huh. Suddenly I think I understand why I am the only person in the house who doesn't have an animal of choice. Because animal was the wrong direction.

Also I think a loaf of bread. I think we will have to get selective here, or else it will be a very crowded shield.

[ckd]

Crossed hockey stick and axe, then in the four areas between them a fir tree, a spaceship, a loaf of bread (lussekatter, maybe?), and something for the remaining space. Hmm.

A book?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Good call on dropping the 'eam'. I like the rhythm of 'communicavi' (and I'd try to rationalise it as 'I have always...'). But indeed, let us lay the whole thing before mrissa and she shall take her pick!

[guppiecat]

"Utbay Iway oughtthay itway ightmay amuseway erhay, andway osay
Iway aredshay."



Oh, was that not the latin you meant?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I do love how any time anyone asks for a touch of Latin, there are always half a dozen ways to go. Latin: a river delta, not an obelisk.