Political warning: I am using Trump in this ‘exchange’. What is the nearest translation into Latin of the following dialogue:
Of the dead, say nothing but good.
Trump is dead.
Good.
De mortuis, bonum tantum dic.
Trump mortuus est
Bonum
Nihil nisi bene pro mortuis dic.
Trump mortuus est.
Bene.
Nihil nisi bonum mortuis
Trump mortuus est
Bonum
De mortuis nil nisi bonum.
Trump mortuus est
Bonum
I think the second. The proper word is “well” – adverb, bene – as it modifies “to speak” (dicere). Not sure why they didn’t write the word “dicere” in full.
Isn’t good used as a noun in that expression?
I think the second, as well.
‘They’ are Google Translate.
I think it is an adjective. ‘Say nothing but good (adjective) [things].’
Using an adjective in place of a noun is standard, accepted Latin, so that’d work fine.
What I’m less sure about is how well Latin could handle a single-word sentence of “Good”. Latin does have single-word sentences, but in all of the cases I can think of (like Caesar’s famous speech), the word is a verb.
True, but an adverb (like bene) works okay in some single-word sentences. Minime (“in the least; ‘leastly’”) is one way to say “no.” Ita vero (“truly in this way”) is one way to “yes.”
It’s a bit of a pun. The first sentence means, ‘Say only good things of the dead.’ The last sentence is, ‘Good.’’ The joke is turning ‘Of the dead, say only good’ into ‘Of the dead, say only “Good.”’ Hence, ‘Good.’ Is that sort of humour possible in Latin?
Looking forward to a good day in the future when I can use Trump and good in the same sentence. Like: Its good that Trump is dead. He can’t hurt innocent people anymore.
Yes, I understand the goal. I’m just not sure if it works or not. But others are a lot better at Latin than I am.
I hope nobody has a definitive answer because Johnny will have to write it a hundred times or have his balls cut off.
The standard Latin phrase is De mortuis nil nisi bonum.
For some people you might prefer HL Mencken’s sardonic update: De mortuis nil nisi bunkum
Google translates that ti ‘Nothing but good comes from the dead,’ which is different from ‘Of the dead nothing but good is to be said,’ in the Wikipedia article. Is Google wrong? Or is the sentence idiomatic (‘Don’t listen to the words, listen to what I’m saying.’)?
Well… I suppose there’s a potential ambiguity given that it’s so compressed, but the usage has been around for a couple of millennia at least, whereas Google Translate… hasn’t.
The phrase, as linked (i.e., the Wikipedia article title) is a truncated version of the whole phrase, which is actually:
De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est
The missing words translate to “is to be spoken” or “must be said”. That’s the missing bit of meaning.
Google isn’t wrong; it was given incomplete information.
euge, bene, optime
Perhaps “bonum”? Virgil does have [bla bla bla] / Bonum sit!
I’ll have y’all know that when I saw the OP, I had to look up whether Trump had suddenly died.
My wife calls me a Boy Scout. 