# Help with Latin **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2007, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176 "2007-11-20T13:36:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/1 "2007-11-20T13:36:58Z")
How would you best render “I am a salad dressing dude” into Latin ? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/2 "2007-11-20T13:41:03Z")
[QUOTE=Isosleepy] How would you best render “I am a salad dressing dude” into Latin ? [/QUOTE] English is often ambiguous, especially when nouns are used attributively. Do you mean that you are dude who likes salad dressing? who makes or sells salad dressing? who looks like salad dressing? ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/3 "2007-11-20T13:44:52Z")
“i am the dude who makes the salad dressing” also ok, but second choice: “I am the dude who is the salad dressing” Context: In Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure, they explain that Caesar is " a salad dressing dude" Had Caesar concurred, how would he have expressed that? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/4 "2007-11-20T14:05:17Z")
[QUOTE=Isosleepy] “i am the dude who makes the salad dressing” also ok, but second choice: “I am the dude who is the salad dressing” Context: In Bill and Ted’s excellent adventure, they explain that Caesar is " a salad dressing dude" Had Caesar concurred, how would he have expressed that? [/QUOTE] Wouldn’t that be that Caesar is a dude who had a salad dressing named after him? But Bill and Ted were pretty fuzzy thinkers, so who knows what they meant. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/5 "2007-11-20T14:11:55Z")
The next question is what salad dressing is in Latin. They had the right ingredients, including olive oil, vinegar, lemons, and various spices, but the best word I’m finding is “condimentum”, which includes sauces and spices. So Caesar might respond, “Illum condimentum amo”, or “I like that dressing.” ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/6 "2007-11-20T14:16:47Z")
Would “Ego svm vir qvisnam creo moretvm vestio” translate as: “I am man who makes salad clothing” ? Would “Svm vir creo moretvm vestio” be better? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/7 "2007-11-20T14:27:52Z")
_Homo acetaria condimentum sum_. (“I am the salad sauce man.”) I think that’s about as close as we’re going to get. ETA or maybe you could try the _Homo acetariae condimenti sum_. (“I am the man of the salad sauce.”) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/8 "2007-11-20T14:31:37Z")
_Quis acetariam fecit? Cæsar acetariam fecit!_ I’ll take a crack at the OP-- how about… _Acetariafex sum_? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/9 "2007-11-20T14:36:18Z")
[QUOTE=Johanna] _Quis acetariam fecit? Cæsar acetariam fecit!_ I’ll take a crack at the OP-- how about… _Acetariafex sum_? [/QUOTE] But he makes the _dressing_, not the salad. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/10 "2007-11-20T16:07:20Z")
I appreciate the answers, but I’m not quite there yet. I want it to read “I am the man who makes the clothing for the salad” (my quirk, go with me here), and I think I want to use “vir” because of the leader or hero feel of the word. Should I go with “Svm vir creo acetarivm vestio”? Do I have my syntax/word endings wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/11 "2007-11-20T16:36:47Z")
[QUOTE=Isosleepy] I appreciate the answers, but I’m not quite there yet. I want it to read “I am the man who makes the clothing for the salad” (my quirk, go with me here), and I think I want to use “vir” because of the leader or hero feel of the word. Should I go with “Svm vir creo acetarivm vestio”? Do I have my syntax/word endings wrong? [/QUOTE] Not only is the syntax and morphology wrong, you don’t need those 'v’s either. Try this: _Vir qui vestem acetaria facet sum._ (“I am the man who makes clothes for the salad.”) ETA **CJJ’s** answer works too but _ius_ indicates more of a broth or a soup than a sauce. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/12 "2007-11-20T16:36:46Z")
_Vir sum qui ius acetario praeparo._; if you really want “clothing”, change _ius_ to _vestem_. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/13 "2007-11-20T16:42:27Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] _Vir qui vestem acetaria facet sum._ (“I am the man who makes clothes for the salad.”) [/QUOTE] Perhaps dative _acetario_ is better here. Also unlike English, Latin usually keeps the person of the verb the same in the relative clause, so I’d recommend _facio_. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/14 "2007-11-20T16:48:11Z")
Thanks, all! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/15 "2007-11-20T16:51:15Z")
[QUOTE=CJJ\*] Perhaps dative _acetario_ is better here. [/quote] I thought it was the ablative but maybe youre right. I was always terrible at parsing out case forms for relative clauses. > [@](#): > > Also unlike English, Latin usually keeps the person of the verb the same in the relative clause, so I’d recommend _facio_. I had to think about that last part and went back and forth on it. The first person ultimately just seemed wrong to me but you’re probably right. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/16 "2007-11-20T21:48:46Z")
I have nothing to contribute. I just wanted to say that threads like this are why I love this board! ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2007, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-latin/427176/17 "2007-11-21T02:25:38Z")
One place to look for vocabulary is in a source like Apicius.\* The Romans actually liked to load up their versions of salad (_salata_) as we would think of them with salt – the English word for salad derives from the Latin word for salt, in fact, and salata more or less means ‘having been salted.’ So I would suppose since the dressing lends itself to the name of the dish, you might render your sentence as ‘Ecce magister salata’: ‘Behold the salad master.’ or ‘Behold the saladmeister’ if you’re feeling a bit silly. \*One version of a salad recipe I recall from Apicius is quite different from the modern bowl of shredded leafy veg and things. Instead they tended to pile up the greenery in layers on bread – so you’d find a recipe for buttered bread, soaked (or sprinkled with) oil-and-vinegar, then a layer of leafy greens, for example. edit to remove an errant comma