# Translation Help, Please

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translation-help-please/507021>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 20, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translation-help-please/507021 "2009-08-20T02:17:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translation-help-please/507021/1 "2009-08-20T02:17:10Z")

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For a very trivial reason, I need a good translation of “Dig We Must,” in Gaelic for use as a motto on a clan badge and in Latin for a coat of arms.

Thank you.

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**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:** [August 20, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translation-help-please/507021/2 "2009-08-20T04:15:28Z")

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> [@DrFidelius](#):
>
> For a very trivial reason, I need a good translation of “Dig We Must,” in Gaelic for use as a motto on a clan badge and in Latin for a coat of arms.
> 
> Thank you.

I assume Scottish Gaelic, since you said “clan badge.”

I’m not a native speaker by any means, but I do read it and I own about ten different Gaelic dictionaries, so here’s the greatest hits.

My English-Gaelic dictionary lists five words for dig:

_bùraich  
cladhaich  
ruamhair  
tochail  
treachail_

My Gaelic-English dictionaries give the following nuances:

_bùraich_: “dig lightly and irregularly”; also the genitive of _bùrach_, “confusion, disorder, shambles, delving, digging.” _Buirich_ is a mattack, hoe, or spade. Seems to be a rare word.  
_cladhaich_: “dig, delve, bore, burrow, dig, excavate, mine, quarry, scoop, trench, poke” (the Welsh cognate means “bury”)  
_ruamhair_: “delve, dig with a spade”  
_tochail_ or _tochladh_: “dig, quarry” (_tochailt_ is “a quarry.”)  
_treachail_ or _treachladh_: dig; near Inverary, “dig a grave”

So it sort of depends whether you’re digging a grave, a quarry, with hand-tools, or what. I’ll assume the most generic, _claidhaich_. _Feumaidh sinn claidhaich_. The pronunciation is something like FYOO-mee shin CLY-ihh (-hh as the h[sup]y[/sup] in _hue_)

The joy of Gaelic is that you can mess with the word order to get the nuance of English, but I’m not as sure how to do that. I’ll guess but don’t quote me:

_Claidhaich a fheumadh_

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**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:** [August 20, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translation-help-please/507021/3 "2009-08-20T04:19:41Z")

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While I’m at it, I’ll take a stab at the Latin:

_Fodendum nobis_.

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**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translation-help-please/507021/4 "2009-08-20T12:46:35Z")

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Thank you. Exactly what I needed. If it ever gets published I will try to remember you in the acknowledgements.

It will be used as the motto on the crest for a steampunk mechanical mole brigade, possibly the official name of their digging leviathan flagship.