Can anybody here tell me what the phrase “tiger hunt” (that is, a hunt for tigers) translates to in Latin? Someone I know is making a logo and wants to put that phrase in Latin on it. They were going to put “tigris venari” on it, but that’s not right, I think. “Venari” is the verb “hunt”, not the noun. I think the words should be reversed too. Can anyone tell the the translation? Please, don’t just look the words up in a dictionary or try to recall the Latin you took decades ago or use an online translator. Tell me where your knowledge of Latin comes from. It’s important I get this correct.
In Livy’s History of Rome, Book 39, Chapter 22, he mentions “venatio… leonum et pantherarum”. Therefore, speaking of tigers, your phrase is “venatio tigrium”
ETA one should not hunt tigers; I’d like to think the human race has moved beyond the need for such spectacles
Tigris is one of those words that different classical authors declined differently. The genitive singular could be tigris or tigridis. So “a hunt for a tiger” could be venatio tigris or venatio tigridis. “A hunt for tigers” could be venatio tigrium or venatio tigridum.
The name of the animal can come before or after the word venatio. A Google search suggests, for example, that cervorum venatio is slightly more common than venatio cervorum (both mean “hunting for [plural] deer”).
Now I’m wondering what Livy had to say about “Shh! Be vewy, vewy quiet; I’m hunting wabbits.”