I was waiting for the computer to boot up at the library today, twiddling the thumbs and all, and I noticed the school (University of Toronto, Vic College)'s crest on the desktop, complete with motto.
U of T, IMHO, has a very nice, elegant motto: Velut arbor aevo, “as a tree matures into age”. So I was admiring our motto, and thinking: wouldn’t it be cool if we all had our own Latin mottos?
No, no, really, bear with me here…
Mine, as the goddess of love, would naturally be Amor vincit omnia–love conquers all. What about yours?
(Online Latin dictionaries, for the not-so-fluent, here and here.)
Illegitimi tatum non carborundum (don’t let the bastards grind you down).
Yes, I know it’s not really a Latin expression, and I know that there are countless variations. But this is the version that I saw many years ago on an ashtray belonging to my great-uncle—one of the finest human beings it has ever been my pleasure/honor to know—and it’s stuck with me ever since.
A circular patch with a banner below. The patch and banner are bordered in red, and the fields of the patch and banner are completely black. Around the top circumference of the patch is:
Si Ego Certiorem Faciam
The banner reads:
Mihi Tu Delendus Eris
Again, I don’t speak Latin; but I think it literally means ‘If I were to make it a certainty to you, you will be deleted to me.’ Colloquially, it means If I tell you, I will have to kill you. (ninth entry from the bottom).
This patch was used by VX-4 at NAS Pt. Mugu in the 1990s for a Top Secret project. (I liked it because I was also involved in a TS project at the time, though not at Pt. Mugu.)
For me: ‘Aude sapere’ - Dare to know
Zeeland, a province of the Netherlands, that was hit by floods in 1953 has ‘Luctor et Emergo’ as a motto. ‘I struggle and emerge’
I’d say sapere aude - dare to be wise. (On Massey College’s coat of arms, Kyth, if you ever pass by.) I wanted “for the cultivation of irony”, but the Classics friend who tried to translate it said that there isn’t a Latin word for irony.
The motto for our college’s frosh week was deponite libros, tollite pocula - drop your books and raise your glasses!
I’ve never actually thought about having one. I suppose this one would be as good as any: “Eos pedica nisi jocum percipere possent” (“Bugger 'em if they can’t take a joke”).
If I wrote verse, I’d use this joke one I saw somewhere - “Cogito ergo poet” - I think, therefore iamb.
I know the Greek phrase is “mêden agan”, meaning literally “nothing too much”, which is subtly different. I’ve forgotten almost al of my Latin, so it’s just a guess that would be something like “nihil nimis”.
