Topic: words and sayings that i don't know (Read 8165 times)

portside II · « **on:** February 01, 2008, 10:24:32 am »

Just browsing the forum and came across these words Caveat Emptor,now they sound (when you say them) Greek or maybe Roman .
I know martin will know what they mean as he put them in his scrolling disclamer but does any one else have their defination.
daz

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2008, 10:47:13 am »

Buyer Beware!

elmo · « **Reply #2 on:** February 01, 2008, 10:51:57 am »

Quote from: portside II on February 01, 2008, 10:24:32 am

Just browsing the forum and came across these words Caveat Emptor,now they sound (when you say them) Greek or maybe Roman .
I know martin will know what they mean as he put them in his scrolling disclamer but does any one else have their defination.
daz

Daz... Latin - 'let the buyer beware!'

Roger in France · « **Reply #3 on:** February 01, 2008, 11:57:51 am »

I think that "caveat emptor" deserves a little more amplification than merely translating from the Latin (correctly) as "let the buyer beware".

It forms the basis of the legal presumption that a buyer must always go about purchasing anything applying the level of awareness and faculties of a reasonable person but not that of an expert.

Taken at its lowest level: if you set out to buy a blue shirt and can see you are being given a red shirt then, later, you have no basis of redress. At the other extreme: if you buy a computer and ask for it to have 1gb of memory it would be unreasonable for you to be able to detect that until you have tested it and so you would have redress.

Roger in France.

andrewh · « **Reply #4 on:** February 01, 2008, 12:27:08 pm »

You prolly don't need to know this, but

"Emptor" is buyer ("vendor" is seller) - as in emporium; place where you buy things
"Caveat" - present tense indicative 3rd person singular - sort of "He, she or it takes care"

Can't remember the verb from which caveat comes, but the imperative "Cave" (Look Out!) is used - sometimes even in english

"Cave Canem" - beware of the pooch

fwiw the translation "let the buyer beware" is very loose and a little wrong, as that would (obviously) be the subjunctive.

Sorry about this, its not often useful speaking dodo
andrew

andrewh · « **Reply #5 on:** February 01, 2008, 12:44:58 pm »

Apologies

Having had a check "Caveat" is, of course, the 3rd person singular present SUBJUNCTIVE (not indicative) of caveo

so "Let the buyer take care" is a good translation
andrew

the 3rd person singular present indicative is "cavet"
second conjugation, should have remembered :-\

sheerline · « **Reply #6 on:** February 01, 2008, 03:16:07 pm »

What about 'pons asinorum' (spelling police)! I believe it means 'reason for being' or 'reason to exist', but not sure. Any ideas chaps?

elmo · « **Reply #7 on:** February 01, 2008, 03:38:24 pm »

Quote from: sheerline on February 01, 2008, 03:16:07 pm

What about 'pons asinorum' (spelling police)! I believe it means 'reason for being' or 'reason to exist', but not sure. Any ideas chaps?

Literal meaning - pons (pont - a bridge) - apparently 'bridge of asses' assume therefore probably bridge of fools?

I'll see what my thesaurus has to say about it!

Hmmm check this out .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pons_asinorum

portside II · « **Reply #8 on:** February 01, 2008, 04:22:09 pm »

Bleeding hell ,there are some intellectual people out there

.
so now i know what it means i probably will forget it and have to refer to the forum to remind me about it by doing a search ,but then i will probably do a new post asking what it means

,and then someone will remind me what i have done

and give me a

and start the whole thing again

.
But for now thankyou to all for the help .
daz

sheerline · « **Reply #9 on:** February 01, 2008, 05:08:33 pm »

Hi Elmo. just did some asking around, 'Pons Asinorum' may mean in everday usage 'A difficult bridge to cross' whereas 'Reason for being' may be (spelling police needed here) 'Raison Detre' which I believe is French (didn't do French at skool) so it looks like I may have mixed up the meanings if I have got them right.
Chris

Roger in France · « **Reply #10 on:** February 01, 2008, 05:14:44 pm »

Euclid stated in his early mathematic theorems that the angles at the base of an isosceles triangle were equal. This became known as the "pons asinorum" or "The Bridge of Asses" to help inadequate students of mathematics to remember the theorem. The reason for "....Bridge...." presumably being that, ideally the legs of a simple bridge would be at the same angle. The "....Asses...." being the poor students.

The application of the expression probably comes from the fact that below par students would not proceed far beyond this level of mathematics. So, your "pons asinorum" is the last bridge you cross, having reached a level appropriate to you.

......I think!

French; "raison d'etre" best translates as " reason for existence". While we are on French, do you know there are no such expressions as "cul de sac" or "en suite" in french!

Roger in France.

sheerline · « **Reply #11 on:** February 01, 2008, 05:27:50 pm »

Very interesting Roger.. what you say makes sense. As for cu-de-sac, I wouldn't mind betting the Brits made this one up! Any idea why we call Koln (couldn't find the umlaut on the keyboard), 'Cologne'?

Roger in France · « **Reply #12 on:** February 01, 2008, 05:43:10 pm »

Not a clue about "Koln", sorry. But much closer to home how about the names of several University Colleges? For example how does "Porter House" become "Peter House" (or is it the other way around?). How does "Magdalen College" become "Maudlin College". How does "Chalmondley Castle" become "Chumley Castle"?

What a fascinating language!

Roger in France.

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #13 on:** February 01, 2008, 05:48:14 pm »

Koln/Cologne are derivatives of the old Roman name Colonia. It was occupied by this lot:

Roger in France · « **Reply #14 on:** February 01, 2008, 05:56:27 pm »

The absence of noses probably caused a mispronunciation and, in the last case, the absence of a brain!

Roger in France.

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #15 on:** February 01, 2008, 06:57:45 pm »

Well, I believe it was "Mayhem" in Gaul around that time....

Jonty · « **Reply #16 on:** February 01, 2008, 07:13:12 pm »

Blimey! We'll be into ablative absolutes next. The having been defeated Gauls, and all that stuff from Kennedy's Eating Primer. My edition had a misprint page heading, must have been deliberate by some printer's devil, of Casual Clauses instead of Causal Clauses.

And how about gerunds and gerundives, Carthago delenda est, etcetera? We could even get into a discourse on why making the plural of referendum refenda instead of referendums is a bit silly.

RickF · « **Reply #17 on:** February 01, 2008, 08:25:47 pm »

Or even "Sic transit gloria mundi" - Your clapped-out van will be mended after the weekend!

(Ok, I know it means "Thus passes the glory of the world", but I couldn't resist the chance to air an old joke)

Rick

Colin Bishop · « **Reply #18 on:** February 01, 2008, 08:33:09 pm »

Quote

"Sic transit gloria mundi"

And I always thought it meant Gloria was sick on the bus on Monday....

dougal99 · « **Reply #19 on:** February 01, 2008, 09:05:58 pm »

My old school motto was tentando superbimus which we translated as we're all going camping super!

sheerline · « **Reply #20 on:** February 01, 2008, 09:10:32 pm »

Corblimus! ...Quote from Sid James in 'Carry on Cleo'.

RickF · « **Reply #21 on:** February 01, 2008, 11:01:23 pm »

I don't think we had a school motto - which was a bit suprising as my school was founded in 1580-something - but I always maintained it should be "ils ne passeront pas".....

Work it out for yourselves!

Rick

portside II · « **Reply #22 on:** February 02, 2008, 08:45:23 am »

and for those of us that are plain thick hows about a break down ,like they do in the dictionary :)
daz

meechingman · « **Reply #23 on:** February 02, 2008, 09:39:16 am »

Dammit, I scrolled down as fast as I could to to the 'sic transit' gag. Too late :'(

Cul de sac, yes. Add it to other imported phrases and then make some up for good measure. "Mot de laune" for starters.

Andy

sheerline · « **Reply #24 on:** February 02, 2008, 10:00:38 am »

Is that' M.O.T. the lawn' Andy?

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Author Topic: words and sayings that i don't know (Read 8165 times)

elmo

Roger in France

elmo

Roger in France

Roger in France

Roger in France