In Latin, “vacuam” means “empty.” What would be the correct form if the word were turned into a personal noun, i.e., “one who is empty”?
“Vacuor”?
In Latin, for “one who is <adjective>”, you just use the adjective itself as a noun. Do note that you need to decline the adjective or noun according to the role it’s playing in the sentence.
The phrase I am looking for is parallel to “caveat emptor”: “Let [he who is empty] beware.”
So is “caveat vacuam” correct?
Caveat vacuus. “He who is vacuous” needs to be in the nominative case.
Thanks. Does this convey the gist of “an empty person” (in the spiritual/ethical/compassionate sense) more than the current meaning of “vacuous” (a shallow, empty-headed person)?
I don’t think so. It seems to be mostly neutral (“empty, vacant”) with a shade of the modern sense (“vacuous”). I think you’d be hard pressed to find a concise Classical Latin equivalent for what you want, because it’s not really an ancient Roman concept. If you did explain that concept to an Ancient Roman, though, he would probably go “oh, that kind of vacuus”. You could possibly say Caveat animus vacuus, “Let the empty soul beware.” (I’m not entirely sure you wouldn’t want Caveat animi vacui or Caveat vir animi vacui, with the descriptive genitive.)
I wonder if you’re going about it the wrong way? How about negating the noun?, so you might say Caveat inanimus - ‘Let the one with no spirit beware.’
Actually, there may be a better word for empty - inanis - so your phrase becomes Caveat inanis.
For what it’s worth, one of the Latin synonym dictionaries says that inanis is “the emptiness of that which has been full, but is now without its contents,” while vacuus is “the emptiness of that which may be filled.” If that’s so (sometimes these older reference works reach a bit, I think), then vacuus suits the OP’s meaning better.
From my little Latin and less Greek I think Caveat vacuus says exactly what I want… and if the shade of Cicero wants stalk me, so be it.
Thanks.
Personally, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. The guy never shut up.