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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

Loyalty

Latin translation:

fides

Added to glossary by Joseph Brazauskas
Oct 7, 2005 22:25
21 yrs ago
English term

Loyalty

Non-PRO English to Latin Other Other
Me and a couple friends are doing a project and each have a latin word (loyalty, honor, and strength). I know that fide is the base word for loyalty, but in the context of a word standing alone and to mean loyalty to eachother what would be most proper way to write it

(o yea, and out of curiosity, the phrase love conquers all, does the word order matter? ie. amur vincit omnia vs omnia vincit amur)
Proposed translations (Latin)
5 +4 fides
5 +2 Fidelitas; atis

Discussion

María Roberto (X) Oct 7, 2005:
To Joseph: don�t know what you are thinking now but I guess we have a very good pupil here.
To Matt: "Fidelitas" is OK.

Proposed translations

+4
55 mins
Selected

fides

Presumably you're asking for the nominative singular form, this being the form of nouns which is listed in a dictionary.

Word order does matter in Latin. Generally speaking, the earlier a word occurs in a sentence, the more emphatic it is. For example, in 'amor vincit omnia', the emphasis is on 'amor', and it might be rendered 'It is love which conquers all', while 'omnia vincit amor' suggests 'It is everything which love conquers'. This is a complicated but important subject into which I cannot go in depth here, but the following hints may be of help.

In unemphatic speech, the commonest order is subject/indirect object/direct object/verb, alhough it is by no means always true, as is often asserted, that the verb usually comes last in a Latin sentence, as the tag from Ovid which you quote indicates. Adjectives and appositive nouns usually follow the nouns which they modify unless emphatic, in which case they precede it, but the commonest adjectives (such as bonus, malus, etc.) and adjectives indicating quantity (magnus, multus, pauci, etc.) normally precede even when not emphatic, as do demonstrative, relative, and interrogative adjectives. Possessive adjectives usually follow. Cardinal numerals (unus, duo, etc.) precede, ordinal numerals (primus, secundus) follow. When the genitive is an equivilent of an adjective or dependemnt on its noun it follows, but when indicating possession it often precedes. Adverbs and phrases used as adverbs usually precede the verb. A complementary infinitive generally precedes the verb which it complements, as does a subject accusative.

These are just a very few observations. The best method, however, of acquiring a sense of the natural word order in Latin is carefully to observe the usage of good writers because most of the so-called rules are very frequently abandoned. For example, although conjunctions usually fall at the beginning of a sentence or clause, a number of them (as 'autem', 'enim', 'quidem', quoque', 'vero', and some others) always follow one or more words. Even preopositions occasionally follow rather than precede their nouns; one which always follows them is 'versus'.



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Note added at 1 hr 7 mins (2005-10-07 23:33:13 GMT) Post-grading
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As Maria notes, 'fidelitas' is indeed synonymous with 'fides' in this sense.
Peer comment(s):

agree Flavio Ferri-Benedetti : Wonderful lesson!
30 mins
Thanks, Flavio.
agree María Roberto (X) : Astonishing!
2 hrs
Thanks.
agree Zrinka Milas : Thank you, Joseph!
14 hrs
Thanks.
agree ------ (X) : Wow!
14 hrs
Thansks.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thank you very much for the answers, just a quick question, would fidelitas and fides be interchangeable? only because I would prefer to use fidelitas just so people reading it will it is latin (since the word will be standing alone) and not read it fIdes"
+2
39 mins

Fidelitas; atis

And: fides, ei // honestas; atis //

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Note added at 42 mins (2005-10-07 23:08:18 GMT)
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Man of great loyalty: Vir summa fide.
Hope it helps!

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Note added at 52 mins (2005-10-07 23:17:53 GMT)
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"Curiosity kill the cat" and if you really want to learn go for it:
AmOr is the word. In this case the order doesn´t matter but it isn't a rule for every Latin phrase.
Peer comment(s):

agree Joseph Brazauskas
16 mins
Thanks, Joseph! I feel flattered with your agree. "Honorem veritati tribuere."
agree Zrinka Milas
14 hrs
Thanks, Zri!
Something went wrong...
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