Forum: Author Hangout

my bad. but I was kinda hoping for a witty corruption of the phrase if you know what I mean

Cave at Ema's port.

It's Caveat Emptor.

Caveat lector may be appropriate for this site: "Let the reader beware". Especially for Inactive and Incomplete stories...

It's no more Latin than Semper ubi sub ubi "Always wear underwear".

That's literally, "Always where under where," btw.

Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

(Whatever is said in Latin, seems profound.)

Yeah, it's not even badly mangled Latin,

I read a case about a US university that wanted a motto of "Let there be light" in Latin.

They went to one of their professors who teaches Latin and he told them "Lux Sit" which they put on their letterhead and carved onto building entrances.

Years later they were discovered that "Lux Sit" is simply "light is". "Let there be light" would be "Fiat Lux".

"Lux Sit"

But what does it mean?
The Daily May 25, 1999 Updated Feb 19, 2015

Among other translations, the UW's motto has been read as 'Let there be a lamp in here. The UW's motto, "Lux Sit," is emblazoned on the exterior of Savery Hall. Classics professors disagree on the exact translation of the motto, but the gist is assumed to be "let there be light."

Like many other schools, the UW has a grand-sounding Latin motto: Lux sit. It graces the school seal and inspires students to reach ever-higher summits of personal achievement.

Or maybe not.

One problem with Latin mottos is that these days, few people know what they mean. And when it comes to the UW's motto, even the experts can't agree on its meaning - several calls to the classics department proved that there is much divergent opinion as to what Lux sit really means. Although Latin is called a dead language, the controversy over what Lux sit could mean is very much alive.

The UW's motto is most commonly translated as, "Let there be light." But these translators probably do not know Latin well, as Lux sit is an imperfect translation of that grand imperative.

It is maddeningly hard to track down the source of the UW's motto, but in the past, it has been attributed to the first president of the UW, Asa Mercer, and it appears on very early examples of the school seal. The story goes that Mercer was no Latin scholar, but for some reason, at a time when Greek and Latin were required subjects at the University, no one corrected Mercer's awkward motto.

"There is a controversy about the saying Lux sit," said Alain Gowing, assistant professor of classics. First of all, "It's extremely bad Latin. Most people with a rudimentary knowledge of Latin would see that it is bad Latin."

However, despite the bad grammar, Gowing says that the saying could still mean a number of things to a Latin speaker.

"A Roman looking at that would think, 'Let there be a lamp in here,'" Gowing said, demonstrating the ambiguity of the phrase.

Other translations appearing in print in the past have been "There is a light here" or "There is light. So what?"

Paul Pascal, professor emeritus of classics, conceded the motto must have been intended to mean, "Let there be light."

"But a better way to say it is the standard wording of the Vulgate (the Latin Bible) - Fiat lux.."

Pascal gives two reasons why Fiat lux is a better translation. "First of all, we translate either sit or fiat as 'be' in English, but they don't really mean the same thing. Sit means simply 'let it exist,' with no reference to its creation or to its ever having not existed. Fiat means 'let it come into being, let it make the transition from not being to being.'"

The second reason that Pascal gives is dramatic flair. "The order of a verb and its subject can go either way in Latin. The sequence chosen in the Vulgate introduces an element of suspense into God's first reported words."

In other words, "Let there be light" is more powerful because it heightens the suspense about what, exactly, is coming into being. The UW version, "Light - let it exist," spills its drama all at once.

But if the UW wanted to change its motto to the more accurate Fiat lux, it could be accused of copying the University of California at Berkeley, which has used the motto for more than a century.

Besides, since no one knows why the phrase Lux sit was selected, it's possible it was intended to mean something other than "Let there be light." Pascal says that the UW version of the motto could mean something like, "Now that light exists, let it continue to exist."

Which is something that UW students can live up to, right?

That's probably apocryphal. Both Fiat Lux and Lux Sit appear in early translations of the Bible.

The original Hebrew phrase translates as a command meaning "light exist".

Lux Sit was in the first Latin translation of the Bible, the Vetus Latina, and translates as "let light exist".

Fiat Lux was in the Vulgate Latin Bible () and would more accurately translate as "let light be made".

Both Bible versions date to around the late-4th century, but it was the Vulgate that was eventually adopted by the Catholic Church, so that's why people are more familiar with Fiat Lux.

"In cervisia sunt mendacium".
In beer there are lies.

I always liked "In vino veritas", or "In wine, there is truth".

@Radagast

"In cervisia sunt mendacium".
In beer there are lies.

If there is truth in wine and lies in beer, what is in whiskey?

If there is truth in wine and lies in beer, what is in whiskey?

Wisdom

If there is truth in wine and lies in beer, what is in whiskey?

Life. uisce beatha = water of life.

Life. uisce beatha = water of life.

It's not only Whisky:

Aqua vitae was often an etymological source of terms applied to important locally produced distilled spirits. Examples include whisky (from the Gaelic uisce beatha), eau de vie in France, acquavite in Italy, and akvavit in Scandinavia, okowita in Poland, оковита (okovyta) in Ukraine, акавіта (akavita) in Belarus, and яковита (yakovita) in southern Russian dialects.

So, water of life (latin aqua vitae) is a generic name for strong distilled alcohol.

HM.