Posted on 09/22/2004 8:25:36 AM PDT by Area Freeper
London, Sept 22 : The Vatican has come out with a new dictionary of modern words in Latin, which includes translations for words like hot pants, punk and Lambrusco wine.
The book produced by the Latinitas Foundation, an academic institution founded in 1976 by Pope Paul VI with the intention of preserving and evolving the Latin language, will update vocabulary for theologians, thus helping them in writing in Latin about current issues.
In the dictionary, hotpants appears as brevissimae bracae femineae, punk as punkianae catervae assecla, and Lambrusco wine as acre vinum Aemilianum.
There is also an Italian emphasis on food and drink, with translations for pizza (placenta compressa), ciabatta bread (domestica crepida) and tortellino (pastillus tortilis).
"The authors of the lexicon say they are promoting the use of Latin for the entire world," reports the Daily Telegraph.
"There are lots of words that Classical Latin could not possibly know the meaning of, like drugs or words relating to current affairs," said Cletus Pavanetto, president of the Latinitas Foundation.
"We devise new words by going back to their origins and etymology so that people who use Latin can write about the modern world," he added. (ANI)
Latin is no longer a dead language ?
Cannibus Sativa?
Latin is the official languge to the Holy See, an honest to goodness nation.
Latin is the only dead language that refuses to die.
Mirabile Dictu!
I recall some thirty-five years ago reading "Winnie Ille Pooh" in high school.
Bootimus Maximus
That one's been around for a long time
Tecnically, none of these ladies is wearing brevissimae bracae femineae...
Hot pants? That hasn't been a commonly used word for a good 30 years. Are they going to define groovy next?
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