# Anybody remember their highschool latin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 6, 2000, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785 "2000-05-06T22:23:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7feea3/32.png) [@Inky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky_1)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2000, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/1 "2000-05-06T22:23:42Z")
I was reading The Onion’s “Our Dumb Century” today, some of the older standards had the legend “Tu stultus es”. Anyone? Inky P.S. FU Omniscient, I’ll put as many return strokes as I want! I live on the edge, baby! ---
**Author:** ![Inky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7feea3/32.png) [@Inky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky_1)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2000, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/2 "2000-05-06T22:34:01Z")
Okay, a bit more research discovered the following: TU: pron. of the 2nd person; strengthened forms in -te , -met, temet; [thou, you]; plur. vos, etc. [ye, you]. STULTUS: -a -um [foolish , silly]; m. as subst. [a simpleton, fool]; adv. stulte. “You Are Stupid”? ---
**Author:** ![SDP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDP)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2000, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/3 "2000-05-06T23:28:25Z")
Yep, “You are stupid.” I don’t like the word order though 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/4 "2000-05-07T00:26:25Z")
I, too, remember some Latin from school. Serpent in hortus est. Cave Canum. Caveat Emptor. Uhm… that’s about it, I suppose 😉 ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/5 "2000-05-07T00:26:52Z")
What wrong with the word order? Sounds like standard predicate nominative to me. Then again, I mostly read medieval Latin, not classical. ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/6 "2000-05-07T00:33:16Z")
It looks like Coldfire and I simul-posted. In real life, I’d owe him a beer. What’s the penalty on Straight Dope? Provide more details? Well, here’s my favorite quote from my freshman Latin text (supposedly it was found written or a wall in Pompeii): “Tu mater stertocarari est.” The only passage I’ve ever seen containing “stertocarari” (i may have misspelled it – it’s been two decades) had a footnote translating it as something on the lines of ‘manure cart driver’. I’d be grateful if someone could clarify ---
**Author:** ![SDP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDP)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/7 "2000-05-07T00:38:48Z")
**KP wrote:** > [@](#): > > What wrong with the word order? Sounds like standard predicate nominative to me. Nothing really, I just like strange word orders. I just kinda felt like saying that, the post with just “You are stupid.” seemed a bit dry. I actually wouldn’t use “tu” though, that would mean emphasizing that **you** are stupid…I would just say stultus es. Or if I were feeling particularly vicious, stultissimus es. Or I could invoke some harsh Latin insults that would send shivers down your spine! ---
**Author:** ![\_oo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/e9a140/32.png) [@\_oo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_oo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/8 "2000-05-07T16:50:57Z")
All I seem to remember from studying 6 yrs of latin is Caecilius and his wife Metella… however, on refreshing my memory a little bit… yep, it does mean “you are stupid”, and there is nothing wrong with the word order as well. ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/9 "2000-05-07T16:56:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > All I seem to remember from studying 6 yrs of latin is Caecilius and his wife Metella…\*\* **caecilius!** that guy was the man. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/10 "2000-05-07T17:22:54Z")
La la la la la la la la la… * * * Manual sig line #28 ---
**Author:** ![SwimmingRiddles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SwimmingRiddles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingRiddles)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/11 "2000-05-07T17:55:44Z")
My high school Latin came in handy when the arts institute I went to named thier magazine “Semper ubi sub ubi.” (yea, I know, wrong “where.”) ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/12 "2000-05-07T18:11:20Z")
I believe “you are stupid” is accurate as well, or else 3 years of high school latin were for naught. Actually, the phrase I remember most from that long-ago time was one we guys in the back row of freshman latin constructed in a moment of inspiration: “Inflatus sum a tua mater.” We intended it to be a vulgar assualt that would shock people for its combination of the scholarly and the obscene. In reality, I think it literally translates to “I am inflated by your mother,” but I may be wrong even on that. Anyway, it was the best we could do on short notice… ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2000, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/13 "2000-05-07T18:14:29Z")
Is there an English/Latin translater online, like Babelfish? ---
**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/14 "2000-05-08T01:21:43Z")
Geeze, you guys are pretty good. All I remember is the pictures from the textbooks: men in short skirts, golden fields, baths, and something agriola. ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2000, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-their-highschool-latin/18785/15 "2000-05-08T03:38:05Z")
Ah yes… my favorite sentence in all Latin: first day of class, first declension… agricola puellae occupat [The farmer seized the girls]. Suddenly, I felt I truly understood the Romans.