What exactly does Auctoriso mean ?

[Philippe]

Is there any chance that someone could give the full dictionary entry on this one? I'm staring at the word and drawing a complete blank (which is probably my normal state these days) and my Lewis and Short is at the bottom of one of my packing crates.

[CaesarAugustus]

Auctoriso is Latin for "authentic". Mediaeval Auctoriso means "Authentic Medieval".

[Philippe]

Why do you think it means authentic? Did anyone look it up in a medieval latin dictionary ? What gender, case, and number is it ? Is it supposed to be some kind of participial adjective? Maybe it wouldn't look so weird to me if there were some examples of it being used in context.

[Indy1958]

Gentlemen:

Good evening from Canada!!! I hope this finds you and yours well. As for me, I could complain...yadda, yadda, yadda.

We have been discussing the word, "Auctoriso." I hate to be one to rain on your parade, but that isn't the word for "authentic". That word is related to the likes of "auctoritas"(power, authority) and the word "auctor", which means "author" or "originator."

For the word, "authentic", our mod maker would be well served with one of the following: "Germanus", "Sincerus", "Verus", "Genuinitas", "Auctorita ratio", or "Autenicitas."

I hope I haven't ruined anyone's night.

Live long and prosper, take care and thank you kindly!!!!

Sincerely yours always,

Indy.

[Hesford]

Just google 'latin online translation'. There are hundreds on the web.

[Boyar Karhunkynsi]

I've been starting to learn a bit of Latin and I have to agree with Indy, Auctoriso is, I believe, used incorrectly, thus Mediæval Auctoriso is grammartically incorrect.

You know what to do? Ask a general physician. They write in Latin.

-Max

[Tuuvi]

Even if it's not correct I still think it's a cool name

[Sheep]

You know what to do? Ask a general physician. They write in Latin.

Maybe the Pope's doctor does...

[Philippe]

Some of the discussion in this thread reminds me a bit of French t-shirts.

For many years the French thought it was fashionable to wear t-shirts that alluded to American popular culture. They would usually have an image on them derived from something vaguely Disney-esque, and there would be text (which they clearly thought sounded "cool") that was supposed to represent something in idiomatic English that was vaguely connected to the image being displayed.

The result, of course, was a linguistic abomination. The French aren't quite as monolingual as the Italians, but are hampered by a culturally ingrained attitude that everyone else really should be fluent in French because of the superiority of their culture. While this was certainly true in the 18th and 19th centuries, French was replaced by broken English as the lingua franca of international discourse during the decades after WW II. But the resulting mangling of language on American-pop-culture-themed t-shirts was so horrendous that I know several people who used to collect them for their bad use of language. And also because, being recovering victims of the French school system, they really enjoyed watching the myth of French cultural superiority accidently debunked by the French themselves.

There seem to be several schools of thought here about the use of the word Auctoriso in the same breath as the word Medieval. Those who know a bit of Latin find it more atrocious than funny. Those who think that Babelfish is the Holy Grail of linguistics and idiomatic translation think it is cool. Personally I think it is rather sad to saddle the Middle Ages with such a poor misconstruction: their knowledge of Latin was far better than that.

[alpaca]

Well if you propose us a good name we'll be happy to use it
Don't forget to give me a good one for the Italy scenario, too though.

You have to be able to laugh about your own bad linguistics sometimes if you ask me

P.S. Mediaeval isn't a Latin word either

[Philippe]

If it were my mod I'd bag the Latin altogether. Its pretentious and nobody understands it anyway. And you won't need my help to come up with something in English (or even broken English with a funny accent, which I'm very good at).

Our Canadian friend a few posts up had several good ideas. Without knowing exactly what you're trying to convey I'm not sure if my suggestions will be useful, but here goes anyway.

Instead of Medieval Auctoriso, I would suggest something like Gesta Nationum: [insert English subtitle here]. An example of an English subtitle might be something like "the real Middle Ages" or even "authentic medieval". You're better at English than I am, so I leave that part up to you. Just remember to use the colon so you aren't mixing languages in the title (which only seems to work in Spanglish and Franglais).

Commentary on Gesta Nationum: I would have preferred Gesta Francorum (literally the Deeds of the Franks -- and by extension, everybody in Western Christendom), but that leaves out the Byzantines, the Turks, the Arabs, and all those other fun people. So I'm using an idiom that was enshrined by St. Jerome's Vulgate when he translated the Psalm that begins "Why do the goyim rage" with "Cur fremitant nationes". For anyone that cares, "nationum" is the third declension genitive plural of natio. You've probably encountered the word "Gesta" in its french form, as in Chanson de Gestes.

I'm not sure I understand the English that is supposed to lie behind "Italia Invictus". The one thing it can't mean is "unconquered Italy", because adjectives have to agree with their noun in gender, number, and case. "Unconquered Italy" would be something like "Italia Invicta". If you're trying to say "Unconquered by or in Italy" that's a whole different kettle of fish.

[Vladimir]

There seem to be several schools of thought here about the use of the word Auctoriso in the same breath as the word Medieval. Those who know a bit of Latin find it more atrocious than funny. Those who think that Babelfish is the Holy Grail of linguistics and idiomatic translation think it is cool. Personally I think it is rather sad to saddle the Middle Ages with such a poor misconstruction: their knowledge of Latin was far better than that.

Latin during the middle ages was at times as bad as the Latin on US currency. You're going to have to reconcile your idealized version of history with the truth.

[Philippe]

As Pontius Pilate said in John's Greek, what is truth?

Last time I checked the Latin on a US $1 Federal Reserve Note I was confronted with a bunch of snippets from Vergil.

Now I know the Fourth Eclogue isn't everybody's cup of tea because of the imputed Messianic overtones, but I don't think anyone would pretend that Medieval Latin was up to the standard of the hallmark of Golden Age Latin.

I've read good Medieval Latin and bad Medieval Latin. There's some fabulous material in there (e.g. Symmachus, Boethius, Thomas Acquinas, Peter Abelard, Anselm, and Thomas of Celano), much of it fully up to classical standards. There's also some pretty embarassing stuff.

But even when it is excruciatingly bad it displays an elementary knowledge of grammar, syntax, and the meaning of words. It always rises above the level of baby-talk.

The only reason we have any classical literature at all is because back then people knew enough Latin to appreciate it, copy it and preserve it. Why? Because when they communicated with each other officially, they did it in Latin.

Computer translation doesn't work very well to begin with, but it really gets in trouble with an inflected language like Latin since a) syntax and meaning (as opposed to idiomatic and stylistic usage) are almost exclusively dependant on case endings rather than word order; and b) Latin is an impoverished language as far as vocabulary is concerned, so each word tends to have to do double, triple, and quadrupal duty for concepts that in a normal language would be segregated into discrete words (e.g. most Latin words for thought process-related activities are extended agricultural metaphors -- the exact same verb is used for thinking and pruning).

Projecting one's own ignorance back onto the past may be very satisfying and self-exculpatory, but is an exercise in self-delusion.


P.S. -- My favorite (vernacular) medieval folktale was about the evil Roman emperor Hannibal who crossed the Alps with his elephants to persecute the Christians in Rome. Go figure.

[IrishArmenian]

Isn't this thread for the Monasterey?

[legacy0100]

Philippe, i've lost your since your second post. Take your pills man.

[alpaca]

Philippe, i've lost your since your second post. Take your pills man.

Please don't gravedig posts in our forums unless you have something new to say. This thread is obsolete anyways, since we're renaming the mod to Anno Domini MXVI which incidentally is proper latin