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group004

Page history last edited by Laura Gibbs 15 years, 3 months ago

 

Latin Via Proverbs: Home - Previous - Next

 

Group 4: Latin

 

41. Rarus fidus amicus.

42. Locus medius tutus est.

43. Heri servus, hodie liber.

44. Semel malus, semper malus.

45. Neque pessimus neque primus.

46. Optimus magister bonus liber.

47. Bonus liber amicus optimus.

48. Libri muti magistri sunt.

49. Pauci sed boni.

50. Amici nec multi nec nulli.

51. Montani semper liberi.

 

Audio

 



 

Study Guide

 

41. A faithful friend is hard-to-find. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.) 

 

42. The middle place is safe. (This is one of many Latin proverbs promoting the "golden mean." Notice that in Latin the adjective can follow the noun in a phrase, locus medius, but this is not possible in English. This saying is quote by Bernard of Clairvaux, De Consideratione.)

 

43. A slave yesterday, a free man today. (The words heri and hodie are adverbs, and so they do not decline. Watch out for liber meaning "free" (as in the English word "liberty") and liber meaning "book" (as in the English word "library") in this set of proverbs!)

 

44. Once bad, always bad. (The words semel and semper are adverbs and do not decline. Notice the nice parallel construction here; parallelism is a very popular style used in proverbs. This dictum forms part of the Latin legal tradition.)

 

45. Neither worst nor first. (This proverb is even a bit better in English than in Latin since it rhymes so nicely! It is one of the proverbs in Erasmus's Adagia, 4.4.22.)

 

46. A good book is the best teacher. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

 

47. A good book is the best friend. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

 

48. Books are silent teachers. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

 

49. Few, but good. (The Latin makes it very clear that something plural is being referred to here. In fact, something masculine and plural, such as "men." To spell out what is implicit in the Latin, you could say: [The men are] few, but [they are] good.)

 

50. Neither many friends, nor none. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

 

51. Mountain-men are always free. (Notice that there is no confusion here between liberi meaning "free" and libri meaning "books." The confusion arises only in the nominative singular forms of the words, not in their plural forms or in any of the other cases. This is the state motto of West Virginia! You can see a list of state mottoes in Latin at the Bestiaria Latina blog.)

 

 


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