# Latin translation request: "Unius agni usui" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832 "2014-10-19T17:54:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/1 "2014-10-19T17:54:56Z")
In the Scottish village of Ruthwell the following anagram appears on the gravestone of one Gawin Young: _Gavinus junius Unius agni usui_ The first line is obviously just “Gawin Young” written in Latin. Regarding the second, I know that _ūnīus agnī_ is the genitive of _ūnus agnus_ (“one lamb”), and _ūsuī_ is the dative singular of “ūsus”, meaning “use”. My guess is that “ūsuī” is in the dative of purpose, as in “for the use”. So am I correct in thinking that the translation would be “Gawin Young, for the use of the One Lamb”, meaning that the deceased is commended to Jesus? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/2 "2014-10-19T18:08:01Z")
I have never heard of anyone called _Gawin_, but _Gavin_ is a perfectly good name. (One of King Arthur’s knights was _Sir Gawain_, but that is not _Gawin_.) As “junius” is uncapitalized, perhaps it means “young Gavin” (or “Gavin junior”) rather than “Gavin Young”. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/3 "2014-10-19T18:24:45Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I have never heard of anyone called _Gawin_, but _Gavin_ is a perfectly good name. Gawin’s also a perfectly good name—in fact, it seems to have been the preferred spelling of “Gavin” hundreds of years ago, in Gawin Young’s time. They’re both, in fact, variant forms of Gawain. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/4 "2014-10-19T19:09:16Z")
The dative case is also the case for an indirect object. Also, because “agni” is genitive, and because I think Njtt is right, and the “junius” means that Gavin was young, probably a child, I would guess the inscription means-- or, connotates, anyway, “A lamb is returned.” Even though Jesus is sometimes referred to as a lamb himself, he’s usually “the” lamb. He’s also referred to as a shepherd, and his followers as his flock. It’s an anagram? I guess if the J is one of the Is in the bottom row, and the V is one of the Us, it is. That explains why the epitaph is so strained. If you want to say “Returned to Jesus,” there are more straightforward ways of saying that. Did you Google the phrase? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/5 "2014-10-19T19:36:50Z")
_Junius_ is neuter, though, while _Gavinus_, _agnus_, and _ūsus_ are masculine. The masculine form is _junior_ (“Younger”). That suggests that the grammar here isn’t perfect, anyway, and might be hard to parse. I would agree with the OP’s interpretation of it. Edit: according to the internet, he lived to be 54. Discussed [here](http://books.google.ca/books?id=xZlGAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA185&lpg=RA1-PA185&dq=%22unius+agni%22&source=bl&ots=WBUgwJS1Xq&sig=Th_IqcVpBfPiYhyl6fp9quEMEVM&hl=cy&sa=X&ei=GhNEVIzqK5K3yASvz4HACg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22unius%20agni%22&f=false). ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/6 "2014-10-19T20:12:27Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > _Junius_ is neuter, though, while _Gavinus_, _agnus_, and _ūsus_ are masculine. The masculine form is _junior_ (“Younger”). That suggests that the grammar here isn’t perfect, anyway, and might be hard to parse. I would agree with the OP’s interpretation of it. > > Edit: according to the internet, he lived to be 54. Discussed [here](http://books.google.ca/books?id=xZlGAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA185&lpg=RA1-PA185&dq=%22unius+agni%22&source=bl&ots=WBUgwJS1Xq&sig=Th_IqcVpBfPiYhyl6fp9quEMEVM&hl=cy&sa=X&ei=GhNEVIzqK5K3yASvz4HACg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22unius%20agni%22&f=false). What do you mean “junius” is neuter? If it’s supposed to be “iunius,” it’s correctly declined as a masculine adjective. Just because it is derived from the name Juno, doesn’t mean that it can’t function as a masculine adjective. The meaning is probably tortured, just because someone insisted on cramming it into an anagram, though, so I agree that it’s difficult to parse. And not just because I took Latin in 1980-81, and haven’t had much to do with it since then apart from reading legends on sculptures and paintings. [And being really annoyed by words like “octopi.”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2139/what-is-the-plural-of-penis) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/7 "2014-10-19T21:19:59Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > The dative case is also the case for an indirect object. Also, because “agni” is genitive, and because I think Njtt is right, and the “junius” means that Gavin was young, probably a child, Gawin, not Gavin. And he wasn’t young; he was married and had 31 children. > [@](#): > > I would guess the inscription means-- or, connotates, anyway, “A lamb is returned.” If it means “a lamb is returned”, then why is _agnī_ in the genitive? > [@](#): > > It’s an anagram? I guess if the J is one of the Is in the bottom row, and the V is one of the Us, it is. Yes, that’s right. > [@](#): > > Did you Google the phrase? Yes. There are of course many references to Gawin and his tombstone—he’s achieved some minor degree of fame in part due to his extreme fecundity—though I haven’t turned up any translations of the Latin inscription. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/8 "2014-10-20T00:08:37Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > If it means “a lamb is returned”, then why is _agnī_ in the genitive? Because the genitive is used for possessive. Unless I’m confusing it with another declined language, which is possible. But I was thinking it meant “a lamb who belongs,” with the audience understand the “to Jesus” part, and “usui” means that Gawin is in the place he is intended to be, ie, Heaven. Yes, it’s strained, but that’s what you get when you insist on an anagram. I don’t think this is generally well-known in the US. My mother is a linguist, and tends to know about curiosities like this, and I’ve never heard of it before, so I have no background information on it. It may be well-known among Americans of Scottish backgrounds, or among Catholics, since I’m assuming Gawin was, hence the Latin epitaph. I am by no means a classics scholar, though, so I’m not going to push for my guess, except to say, do we know who composed it? Maybe whoever did wasn’t exactly a classics scholar either. If this were a Roman epitaph, I’d say there has to be an answer, but since this could be by someone with a couple of years of Latin in school, maybe it just contains an error. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/9 "2014-10-20T02:07:03Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > What do you mean “junius” is neuter? If it’s supposed to be “iunius,” it’s correctly declined as a masculine adjective. Just because it is derived from the name Juno, doesn’t mean that it can’t function as a masculine adjective. No. The word is _iuvenis_ “young,” and the comparative forms are _iunior_ (nom. m & f. s.) and _iunius_ (nom. neut. s.). Why do you think it is masculine? The I / J issue is a red herring: J is an alternative spelling for I before another vowel, and I am not sure what the name Juno has to do with anything. (Edit: Juno is feminine, anyway, not neuter.) ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/10 "2014-10-20T06:17:06Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > No. The word is _iuvenis_ “young,” and the comparative forms are _iunior_ (nom. m & f. s.) and _iunius_ (nom. neut. s.). Why do you think it is masculine? The I / J issue is a red herring: J is an alternative spelling for I before another vowel, and I am not sure what the name Juno has to do with anything. (Edit: Juno is feminine, anyway, not neuter.) I think I’ve forgotten more Latin than I knew in the first place, and I totally spaced out the “_iunior_ (nom. m & f. s.) and _iunius_ (nom. neut. s.)” comparative forms. I pulled up Juno, trying to think of some other thing the word might refer to, if it wasn’t a last name or an indication of youth. Now, if we already know that the stone belongs to someone named “Gawin Young,” scratch that, obviously, but I didn’t realize that was known information from other sources, because that isn’t in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/11 "2014-10-20T07:58:41Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Now, if we already know that the stone belongs to someone named “Gawin Young,” scratch that, obviously Yes, we do know this—it was the very first sentence of my original post. I’m frankly a bit surprised that I’ve had to repeat this so often. 😕 The two lines I wrote aren’t the only ones in the epitaph, nor are they the only anagram. Immediately below it is another one for his wife, this time in English instead of Latin: Jean Stuart a true saint (Again, you need to read “I” and “J” as equivalent to make the anagram work.) The tombstone also contains some rhyming couplets, and an attribution to “PENNANT”, though it’s not clear if that’s the author of the entire epitaph or just the final couplet. (I’m not aware of any poets from the 17th century or earlier with that name.) The entire epitaph has been widely reproduced (sometimes with typos) in chronicles and other literature, including the one posted by **Dr. Drake**. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/12 "2014-10-20T11:09:50Z")
My Latin is rusty, but… “Usus” would be “use,” and “usui” is dative… meaning “to/for the use.” So, the translation seems to be something like "“For the use of one lamb.” But that translation doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/13 "2014-10-20T11:31:22Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > So, the translation seems to be something like "“For the use of one lamb.” > > But that translation doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. So you don’t figure that “one lamb” is a reference to the [Lamb of God](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_of_God), as I speculated upthread? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/14 "2014-10-20T14:06:39Z")
If Astorian is Jewish, like me, “one lamb” and “Lamb of G-d” wouldn’t be a connection he’d (or she’d) immediately make. I’m more familiar with references to Jesus as a shepherd than a lamb himself, and I would expect a Jesus=lamb thing to be definite, but then, there’s the whole anagram aspect. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/15 "2014-10-20T15:21:25Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I pulled up Juno, trying to think of some other thing the word might refer to, if it wasn’t a last name or an indication of youth. > > Now, if we already know that the stone belongs to someone named “Gawin Young,” scratch that, obviously, but I didn’t realize that was known information from other sources, because that isn’t in the OP. It can also be the word for the month of June, which in Latin is both an adjective (modifying “month”) and masculine, but it makes even less sense in context. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/16 "2014-10-20T15:38:13Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > It can also be the word for the month of June, which in Latin is both an adjective (modifying “month”) and masculine, but it makes even less sense in context. Yeah. I thought of that, but it wouldn’t make any sense to give the month of death, but not the year or date. I assumed the OP was guessing that “junius” was a last name, since he didn’t mention any secondary sources, and what Njtt wrote made sense. Do “junius” and “unius” rhyme by design? I think that the needs of the anagram probably came before strict grammatical structure. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/17 "2014-10-20T18:17:11Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > If Astorian is Jewish, like me, “one lamb” and “Lamb of G-d” wouldn’t be a connection he’d (or she’d) immediately make. I’m more familiar with references to Jesus as a shepherd than a lamb himself, and I would expect a Jesus=lamb thing to be definite, but then, there’s the whole anagram aspect. Nope, I’m 100% Irish Catholic. But while Jesus might well be the lamb referred to, “for the use of one lamb” still doesn’t make much sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/18 "2014-10-20T19:37:38Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Nope, I’m 100% Irish Catholic. But while Jesus might well be the lamb referred to, “for the use of one lamb” still doesn’t make much sense to me. “of the One Lamb,” I think. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-translation-request-unius-agni-usui/701832/19 "2014-10-20T19:57:53Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > “of the One Lamb,” I think. Maybe the implication is that the late Gawin’s entire life was “for the use/service of the Lamb( of God).”