How do you (can you) say “advocacy and support” in Latin? Don’t know if the online translators are getting it right. We can close this as soon as I get an answer and a confirmation or two.
What kind of advocacy and support do you mean? Do you want legal terms? Economic terms?
Yeah, what he said.
advocātiō = advocacy in the sense of legal counsel.
suāsiō = advocacy in the sense of persuasive influence.
subsidium = support as in aid, protect or provide recourse
studium = support in the sense of general good will
auxilium = help
For a motto you might also consider going infinitive:
adiuvāre et dēfendere = to aid and defend.
From what I’ve seen, online translators aren’t translators so much as dictionary looker-uppers. One blogger I’ve read is keen to remind people of the dangers of using these to generate tattoos. Possibly this is to promote his own translation service.
Advocacy and support for mental health patients, to be specific, so definitely advocacy in the sense of persuasive influence, and support as in aid, protection and assistance. This would be a motto for a group of mental health professionals who provide their patients “advocacy and support”. I hope that makes it a bit clearer.
I don’t trust online translators either, but it’s a starting point. That’s why I’m asking here. What my search came up with, if you want a chuckle was “causidicus quod suscipio”. I know zero Latin, so I have no clue whether it means anything at all.
Interesting. I’ve never run into it before, but it appears that causcidus is a somewhat contemptuous term for a lawyer, like ‘shyster’ or ‘mouth-piece’.
Suscipiō would seem to be a good choice, meaning ‘support’ in the sense of ‘to undertake,’ ‘to catch’ (as if from a fall), ‘to take in’ (a child as one’s own). It has this one problem which I would personally have trouble getting over: It’s a typo away from being suspiciō meaning ‘mistrust’ or ‘I mistrust’ – which is what I thought it said when I first read your post.
Quod would mean either ‘that thing which’ or ‘because’.
Note that because causidicus is in the singular nominative, and suscipiō taken as a verb would be in the first person, they’re going to look connected – i.e., it’s the shyster doing the supporting, which suggests these interpretations:
I, A Shyster, Support this Thing
I am a Shyster Because I Support
Another, possibly more viable interpretation, is that it’s just nonsense. Of course, you suspected as much. But I would also like to warn you about something you might not be suspicious of: Latin quotes taken out of books. I mean, hopefully you would suspect Henry Beard of being devilish with his report of what a phrase means in English. But, for example, I have a book called Latin Quips at your Fingertips, which gives the following quote and interpretation:
The problem is that although English does have a word that captures the sense of the Latin cunnus, that word is not wench. So, even if you got it from an actual book, ask somebody before you engage an engraver.
This will be a tremendous source of mirth. Thanks.
We’re getting closer, I think. So if I wanted to hang out a sign similar to:
Dogs, Inc.
Boarding and Grooming
but more like:
Mental Health Guys
Advocacy and Support
based on the information I have given so far, what might be a reasonable Latin translation for advocacy and support, which does not invoke any kind of shysterism?
(Actually, it’s going to more of a banner stating mission than a commercial sign, but I needed to give an example.)
Possibly something like this would work:
Adjūtāre et Suāsēre - to help and to speak for
Of course, you probably won’t want to bother with the macrons.
In any case, you’ll probably want to wait to hear from one of the more crackerjack Latinists that hang around on Le Dope.
Thanks. I will implement that for now, unless someone else has something to say about it. I have no problem leaving the diacritics in there, if it’s more accurate to have them, but if it is acceptable to remove them, it might be less distracting. I’m designing (graphically) a banner for my wife’s case management department, and the goal with the Latin, I think, is to add credibility and a sense of tradition to the slogan, so I guess it depends on whether or not the macrons are essential to the meaning.
You wouldn’t want them on something like a banner.
The Romans didn’t use them, but the Romans were surrounded by Latin. They knew how to pronounce words the same way we know how to pronounce English. There is an overwhelming strain of thought that this means that we who study it shouldn’t bother with them except as beginners, which I consider somewhat bizarre since no one advocates dropping the silent-e from a word like rate, even though all that extra letter does is exactly what the macron does – indicate the sound of a vowel. You’d have to construct a strange and rare context in which a reader couldn’t decide whether you were referring to a rodent or a quantity, yet that spelling is important, but the difference in Latin between a mouth and a bone or coming or having already come, ect, isn’t?
I could go on and on, but the upshot is that I think the macrons should be used every time by anybody who isn’t an ancient Roman, except that what you’re talking about is a special case. For something like a banner, engraving, ect, even the ancient Greeks, whose language used a lot of diacritics, generally wouldn’t use them (feel free to correct me on this). It’s a matter of design rather than language.
My thought exactly. Thank you for all your help. Now, if you ever need something translated into Latvian, I’m your man.