Analysis of 'Apartment Life' spells and Latin.
breyerii:
My slapdash list of corrections:
Dark Spells:
Spiritus Poultria - Spirtus is real Latin. It means 'breath', 'life' and 'spirit'. Poultria refers to Latin "pullus", which means chicken.
Corruptus Locus - Locus is real Latin. It means 'location' and 'place', amongst others. Corruptus is the past participle of "corrumpere", to corrupt.
Inflammo - I didn't think it would be, but this is in fact REALLY a Latin word, meaning 'I set on fire'
Compello Discrepo - BOTH words are genuine Latin. In this case, the entire phrase means roughly 'I force to disagree'
Serventus Attackum - No real Latin here, unless one takes into consideration "servus", which means slave.
Tabula Rasa - As mentioned elsewhere, this is indeed genuine Latin, meaning 'blank tablet'.
Extractum Amorus - This one is tricky. Extractum is real Latin, surprisingly. It means 'extracted' or 'removed'. Amorus, while not real Latin, IS actually close to the real Latin word for love, which is Amor. Very close to being real Latin, actually. If it were "extractum amoris" it would in fact mean, love potion.
Neutral Spells:
Aqua Deletus - Aqua means 'water' in Latin, so this word is real. Deletus, on the other hand, is a form of "delere", to destroy. Remember "delenda Carthago"?
Folium Deletus - Folium is a real Latin word meaning 'leaf'. As said, Deletus is participle to "delere", and translates to "destroyed".
Corpus Athleticus & Corpus Fleshicas - As mentioned, the only real Latin word here is Corpus. Although the Romans took their "athleta" from the Greeks.
Creatum Nutrimens - This phrase sounds fake, but in fact, while creatum is a participle to "creare", to create, nutrimens is actually a real Latin word meaning 'food' or 'nourishment'.
Expello Simae - Expello is a genuine Latin word, meaning 'I banish' or 'expell'. Simae, of course, is not a real Latin word, but I like it and think it a creative word for a Sim.
Appello Cattus Amicus - All real Latin words, meaning very roughly 'I invoke a cat friend'. Notice the form ‘cattus' (which is in the wrong case) is true, if rarer than ‘catus'.
Appello Simae - As established, Simae is fake. But, appello is a real Latin word meaning 'I call' or 'summon'
Magus Mutatio - Finally, we tackle Magus, which is the genuine Latin word for 'magician'. Mutatio is also a real Latin word, meaning 'change' or 'transformation'. So, ‘Change (into a magician)'.
Tempus Interruptus - As most of you probably know, tempus is the Latin word for 'time'. Interruptus, on the other hand, is participle of "interrumpere", to break off. Why would it be so often associated with coitus, otherwise?
Good Spells:
Benemoodus Simae - This one is purely made up also of the Latin adverb "bene".
Creatum Insecto Volucris - take a participle of "creare", create, pig-Latinize the plural of "insectum", insect (which would be "insecta"), add "volucris" (flying being) and you have, ‘create flying insects'
Beautificus Locus - As established above, Locus means 'Location'. Beautificus, on the other hand, is probably a homebrew variant of "beatificus", in turn composed of "beatus", happy/pleasant, and "facere", to make/render. Main infiltration seems to come from ‘beauty', a word whose farthest roots lie in Latin adjective "bellus", pretty.
Remedis Simae - Purely made up in the second word; the first reminds of "remedium", remedy.
Compello Acceptus - As with it's dark counterpoint, both words are real Latin. Compello meaning 'I compell' or 'force', and Acceptus meaning ‘received, accepted'. So, basically, 'compel to accept.'
Appello Servantus - Appello, as established, means 'I summon'. Servantus is, however, not genuine Latin.
Benemoodus Populus - While benemoodus is partially made up, Populus is, of course, genuine Latin, meaning 'the people'
Mactoamicus - Once again, in two halves. First, macto. This is a genuine Latin word meaning 'I magnify', 'glorify', among others. There's also ‘macte', which means, hooray for…! Amicus is, as established, Latin for 'friend'.
Expello Mortis - Both genuine Latin. Expello meaning 'I banish' or 'expel', and Mortis meaning 'of Death'. So, 'I expel Death' in EAxis Latin (should be either, "Expello Mortem" or "Expulsio Mortis").
Annan:
Quote from: breyerii on 2008 October 08, 19:34:34
My slapdash list of corrections:
(snip)
Thank you. I had a feeling that the original list was sort of made of fail, but since my latin skillz are not as good as they could be, I didn't feel like tackling that one.
Also, I don't understand how the OP can be so surprised there are actual latin words in spells made to sound like latin. ...D'oh?
I think the lesson here is, don't start assuming what is and what isn't proper latin if you don't know what cases or declensions are.
Obsidian:
breyerii, some of your corrections work, but others...not so much.
For example:
Quote
Spiritus Poultria - Spirtus is real Latin. It means 'breath', 'life' and 'spirit'. Poultria refers to Latin "pullus", which means chicken.
This is pushing it, I think. Poultria is obviously a fake Latin version of 'poultry', and you'd really have to stretch to get that out of "pullus" ;)
Quote
Corruptus Locus - Locus is real Latin. It means 'location' and 'place', amongst others. Corruptus is the past participle of "corrumpere", to corrupt.
As I said, I can't find corruptus anywhere, and I looked in almost a dozen sources. I believe you though.
Quote
Inflammo - I didn't think it would be, but this is in fact REALLY a Latin word, meaning 'I set on fire'
Every one of my sources says either "to set on fire" or just "set on fire", not "I". Still, I'll give you this.
Quote
Serventus Attackum - No real Latin here, unless one takes into consideration "servus", which means slave.
While not stretching it as much as the poultry example above, it's still kinda pointless to correct. Servantus is obviously fake-Latin for 'servant', just taking the current English word and sticking 'us' on the end of it, as is common.
Quote
Tabula Rasa - As mentioned elsewhere, this is indeed genuine Latin, meaning 'blank tablet'.
Okay. Now this is just quibbling over semantics. ::)
'Slate' and 'tablet' mean the same thing, and pretty much every source you look at will give you both definitions for tabula, as well as 'board', 'plank', and several other related words.
Quote
Tempus Interruptus - As most of you probably know, tempus is the Latin word for 'time'. Interruptus, on the other hand, is participle of "interrumpere", to break off. Why would it be so often associated with coitus, otherwise?
Oh, maybe because they both end with the 'us' sound. ;)
As with the chicken and servant examples above, it appears to be a matter of them just taking an English word and attaching 'us' to it to give it a faux-Latin sound. Don't over analyze these things. :P
Quote
Benemoodus Simae - This one is purely made up also of the Latin adverb "bene".
As I said, I didn't even think of the adverb 'bene', for some strange reason. :-\
Quote
Creatum Insecto Volucris - take a participle of "creare", create, pig-Latinize the plural of "insectum", insect (which would be "insecta"), add "volucris" (flying being) and you have, ‘create flying insects'
I can't find volucris anywhere. I'll accept that, though.
Creatum seems to be just a faux-Latin version of 'Create'.
And insecto is the same, although why they didn't just use 'insectum' is beyond me.
Quote
Compello Acceptus - As with it's dark counterpoint, both words are real Latin. Compello meaning 'I compell' or 'force', and Acceptus meaning ‘received, accepted'. So, basically, 'compel to accept.'
Every source I have gives the translations I gave. :P I'll accept that, though.
Annan:
See what I said about cases and declensions? Those are what make the words you looked up different from the list that Breyerii corrected. The -o ending means I, since latin rarely uses free-standing pronouns. The suffixes shows who does what (and to whom). Hence; inflammo = I set on fire. Same with corruptus, the -tus ending is the past participle - it is not in the present tempus. To know how the different cases of verbs are formed, you need to know which category the verb you're looking up belongs to - there are four groups. All groups follow different rules, and the third group is irregular.
Disclaimer: It has been eight years since my last Latin class and my grasp of Latin grammar is shaky. Breyerii, forgive my mistakes.
jolrei:
Quote from: Obsidian on 2008 October 08, 20:10:31
breyerii, some of your corrections work, but others...not so much.
Except, of course, that the point here is not actually to make spell names that ARE Latin, but to make them SOUND LIKE Latin, with enough reference to be able to guess a bit of what the spell might do. It is therefore irrelevant whether the words are "real" Latin. As Breyerii noted, they "refer to" Latin (insofar as the word poultry is derived from the Latin "pullus").
Quote from: Obsidian on 2008 October 08, 20:10:31
For example:
Quote
Spiritus Poultria - Spirtus is real Latin. It means 'breath', 'life' and 'spirit'. Poultria refers to Latin "pullus", which means chicken.
This is pushing it, I think. Poultria is obviously a fake Latin version of 'poultry', and you'd really have to stretch to get that out of "pullus" ;)
Except that it isn't, because the spell likely has something to do with making sims do the silly chicken dance, or some such, thus, having the spirit of a chicken. The word "poultria" used because "pullus" would not be as readily understood.
Quote from: Obsidian on 2008 October 08, 20:10:31
Quote
Serventus Attackum - No real Latin here, unless one takes into consideration "servus", which means slave.
While not stretching it as much as the poultry example above, it's still kinda pointless to correct. Servantus is obviously fake-Latin for 'servant', just taking the current English word and sticking 'us' on the end of it, as is common.
Again, the English "servant" is derived from the Latin "servus" - "servantus" is used to 1) be more clearly understood; or 2) in an attempt to be funny/like Harry Potter/cool. It isn't Latin, but is still "derived from" Latin.
Quote from: Obsidian on 2008 October 08, 20:10:31
Quote
Tabula Rasa - As mentioned elsewhere, this is indeed genuine Latin, meaning 'blank tablet'.
Okay. Now this is just quibbling over semantics. :P
'Slate' and 'tablet' mean the same thing, and pretty much every source you look at will give you both definitions for tabula, as well as 'board', 'plank', and several other related words.
Agreed. Slate is a more "modern" translation of tablet, since nobody...er...uses tablets...anymore...like nobody now uses slates anymore either. Right, new translation: "wiped memory". See, it works!
Anyway, it's all very interesting. However, it seems one can understand the pseudo-derived-not-quite-Latin well enough to figure out the spells, so I'm not seeing a problem. Admittedly this could annoy the Latin purist, but I suspect the spell book was made with a nod (if not a full fall over bow attempt) to Harry Potter, not to any true Latin text of note.
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