According to Larry Wall, the three great virtues of a computer programmer are laziness, impatience, and hubris. I want to use this as a motto for a certain project, but of course, being a motto, it has to be in fake Latin. So, what’s a plausible way of saying “laziness, impatience, hubris” in Latin?
I found some words using an English->Latin dictionary, but of course I don’t know the differences in connotation, nor how to properly conjugate them.
Candidate words:
Lazy: piger, desidiosus, ignavus
Impatient: (nothing)
Hubris: (nothing) but I found arrogant: ferox, superbus
Thanks for your help!
impatient = nonlongaminus
I entered ‘patient’ into a translator, and added the non (not).
Sounds like you need IMHO.
samclem GQ moderator
Bumpus Maximus.
OK, I did some more searching with online English -> Latin dictionaries and found some intriguing possibilities with the nounish forms:
Laziness: inertia, pigritia, ignavia
I especially like ignavia because it sounds cool. Inertia has a somewhat different connotation in English so I want to avoid that one.
Impatience gets me inpaciencia and inpacienciae (I think the second one is the feminine form?) I like either one. It also suggested odium, but the connotation on that seems much closer to hatred or antipathy with impatience listed as a secondary definition.
For hubris, I especially like superbia.
Can I just stick an et between the last two for “and?”
| “Sometimes I write words to songs because they sound cool to
| sing. Sometimes the listener doesn’t understand what I’m singing
| because I’m dedicated to singing the vowel, having fun with the
| word sounds coming out of my mouth. Cleaned a lot of plates in | Memphis, pumped a lot of pain down in New Orleans,' is a good | example. I think Tina Turner sang tane’ instead of `pain,’ as
| in a contracted form of octane. But I knew what she meant,”
Et signatia et impatientio et supurbia.
Alternatively, you can just list the nouns without any conjunctions at all.
Wow, sorry about that screwup. I seem to have had a mishap with my clipboard, then missed the edit window before I noticed it.
This is what I meant to post:
I would go with signatio for “laziness.” Ignavia carries a connotation of slowness or idleness, while signatio indicates more of a willful slothfulness.
I would also go with either impatientio or festinatio for “impatience.” The former indicates an inability to endure waiting, the latter indicates excessive haste, rushing through something.
As for the construction, in Latin you would start a list like this with an et and then keep sticking more ets between every noun, like this:
Et signatia et impatientio et supurbia.
Alternatively, you can just list the nouns without any conjunctions at all.
Thanks much, Diogenes. I especially appreciate the help with choosing the words with the right connotation.
I think I will just use a comma-separated list without the ets:
Signatia, Impatientio, Supurbia
Phat.