# Latin Question



## A. E. Lowan (Feb 26, 2014)

Okay, we need some fresher brains on this one.  Our Latin is very rusty.  I'm going to toss out a phrase, and if you guys tell us what it means, that would be awesome!  We know what we _hope_ it means, after a couple hours with our old Latin/English dictionary and my partner's knowledge of grammar.

_Universae Petimus_

The problem is every online translator I run this through just churns out gibberish, but it _should_ be correct.  Hard to tell because the phrase doesn't transliterate exactly.  Any guesses?

Thanks!


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## Nagash (Feb 26, 2014)

Well, my latin is a little rusty, but I would say it means "We seek the universe"... An other acceptable traduction would be - depending of your way of translating the verb peto : "We desire the universe"

Only thing is, universa is the feminine of universus; i'm not really sure about how to interpret it from here.


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## Malik (Feb 27, 2014)

I read it as "The worlds (that) we seek." 

Alternately, "The sought worlds."


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## A. E. Lowan (Feb 28, 2014)

The whole phrase we want to translate is "We Stand Together."

In this case the word "Universae" is meant to mean "together."  It's the part of the phrase we're reasonably sure of - at least according to our very nice academic dictionaries.  And Nagash, you're right, I should have been more specific and mentioned that this phrase is a motto for a group of women.

To be honest, I have yet to find an online Latin translator that actually works.

The part of the motto that's killing us is "Petimus."  The part "We Stand," it turns out, does not seem to translate directly to Latin as far as our dictionaries would have us believe - I don't have the foggiest idea why - and this is the closest we can get.  "Peto" means a lot of things, among them to seek, to strive, to ask, and to stand (for).

Thanks for trying, guys!


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## Malik (Feb 28, 2014)

_E pluribus unum._ "From many, one." Still the awesomest national motto ever. Unfortunately, it's taken.


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## The Blue Lotus (Feb 28, 2014)

"_Universae Petimus_" = All we ask? or the Universe we seek?

Latin is tricky, one word can have so many meanings. In my limited understanding of the language, these are what made the most sense to me in this context.

Would "Partier stamus" or "Stamus pariter" be a better phrase for what you are trying to do? Stamus = we stand or to stand, partier = together or to join together in a group. 

I'm sorry I don't know if this is the masculine or feminine forms of these words most of my Latin comes from the medical field, so I've no idea if either is grammatically correct however. I have enough trouble, grammar wise, in "normal" English. LOL.


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## Nagash (Mar 1, 2014)

"Socii stamus" might be what you seek. To my knowledge it's the closest thing to "Together we stand", since it basically means "As comrades we stand".

Might want to check out some adverbs...


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## A. E. Lowan (Mar 7, 2014)

I finally got a response from my grad school mentor, who consulted with a Latinist we had both worked with years and years ago.  The correct translation is... drumroll please... _"Universae Stamus!"_  I thought Lotus and Nagash were probably right with "stamus," and I am glad to have it confirmed.  Thank you guys so much!


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## The Blue Lotus (Mar 7, 2014)

Cool I'm glad you got an answer. You might want to have that guy's # on speed dial!


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## A. E. Lowan (Mar 7, 2014)

The Blue Lotus said:


> Cool I'm glad you got an answer. You might want to have that guy's # on speed dial!



hah hah!  No kidding.  But if you know anything about academia, it's that "speed" isn't a setting.


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