How do I say “Happy birthday, stepbrother!” in Latin?

March 22, 2010 7:33 PM

How do I say “Happy birthday, stepbrother!” in Latin?

The closest Internet translation services will get me is “Gauisus natalis, frater consanguineus!” but I've got no idea if that's any good.

posted by kyten to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

"consanguineus" sounds like one with whom you share blood, which a step-brother is not.
posted by dfriedman at 7:46 PM on March 22, 2010

I haven't taken Latin in years, but a little searching suggest:

Felix dies natalis, vitrici filus!

One site I saw suggested the accusative might be more appropriate for "Happy birthday," changing it to:

Felicem diem natalem, vitrici filius!

...but I'm rusty on the declension rules. (Also, I'm not sure if "stepbrother" needs to be modified.)
posted by Rhaomi at 7:55 PM on March 22, 2010

When we used to sing "Happy Birthday" in Latin, we always used "Felicem natalem." On stepbrother, though, you're on your own.
posted by buzzkillington at 8:04 PM on March 22, 2010

My dictionary gives no term for 'stepbrother'. The suggestion above, vitrici filius, means 'son of the step-father'; if you use that you'd want to change it to vitrici fili since that's vocative case, which is used to address people. Of course he may be the son of your step-mother which would be (in vocative case) novercae fili.
posted by nomis at 8:51 PM on March 22, 2010

The "accusative of exclamation" would apply here, so "Felicem diem natalem" it is.
posted by Bromius at 9:52 PM on March 22, 2010

Thanks everyone! All five answers were helpful; I marked the ones that directly helped me to formulate the translated phrase as best answers.

In the end, I used “Felicem diem natalem, novercae fili!”.

(I probably should have mentioned in the question that he's the son of my stepmother.)
posted by kyten at 1:27 AM on March 23, 2010