Re: off topic latin

[Patricia M Godfrey pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

I agree with Michael that a native phrase is better, but if one wanted a
reasonably close translation of Morris' phrase, I'd say "In partibus
exiguis invenitur veritas" (or almost any order of those words).
"Invenire" is a useful verb: it means to find, discover, invent (which is
actually drived from its past participle, inventus, -a, um), and in Late
Latin, to become. But as it's derived from venire, `to come', one gets
the connection to the English idiomatic sense of "come" in Morris'
phrase.
Carl, some of that was almost-Latin, some real words, but making no
sense. Exempli gratia, tusit is almost Latin: tussit would be "he [she,
it] coughs"; tulit, "he [she, it] bore, carried." Mactaremus is a real
word, a 1st person plural (i.e., We did so and so) imperfect (continued
action in past time, but subjunctive tenses are more arbitrary)
subjunctive of a verb meaning "to glorify or magnify," but also "to
sacrifice, slaughter, destroy." I'd translate, "if we were to
sacrifice." Eripitque is third-person singular, present indicative of a
verb meaning "to snatch away, to rescue," with the enclitic -que,
signifying "and," so = "and he snatches away, rescues." Namitne looks
like Latin: the form is that of a third-person singular present
indicative verb of the third or fourth conjugation, with the
interrogatory enclitic -ne. But my Latin dictionary has no verb namere or
namire, nor have I ever come across such a word (proof of a negative, of
course, is hard to come by).
But it would serve the spamster right if someone replied, "Quousque
tandem abutere, Catalina, patientia nostra?" (That, of course, is the
famous opening of Cicero's First Oration against Cataline; "How far,
pray, will you try our patience, Cataline?")
Patricia