Latin translation of "worse things happen at sea".

August 12, 2010 4:28 AM

Please provide me with a Latin translation of "Worse things happen at sea".

It's for a notarial seal (which in Scotland typically contain your name, "Notary Public" and a motto (usually in Latin) in the middle).

posted by my face your to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

"Peiora cedunt mari" is one way of putting it.
posted by Devika at 5:02 AM on August 12, 2010

"Peiora cedunt mari" is one way of putting it.

Yes, and a very bad way of putting it. (It actually means something like 'greater evils yield to the sea', which is not what you want.) The best I can come up with is 'Res infeliciores saepe in alto eveniunt', which isn't very stylish but would be adequate to express your meaning.
posted by verstegan at 7:42 AM on August 12, 2010

Peiori (or res infeliciores) fiunt in mari?
posted by oinopaponton at 8:41 AM on August 12, 2010

I saw this painted on a wall once and the way they worded it was "romanes eunt domus"
posted by Askr at 9:38 AM on August 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

Internet machine translation:
Peior res venio procul mare
posted by axismundi at 11:18 AM on August 12, 2010

askr, i believe you mean ITE.
Peiora fiunt (in) mari ?
posted by 3mendo at 11:10 PM on August 12, 2010

Oof. Internet machine translation says "Bad thing I come at a distance sea". I was using cedo in the 'befall, happen' sense, and mari as ablative of place where without the preposition, but I do see that cedo could also be taken transitively.

As it's going on a seal, I thought it prudent to be succinct. Peiora does literally mean "worse things" - res infeliciores means "more unfortunate things" or "more unlucky things". Saepe gives you "often," and alto is a more metonymical way of saying "sea" as it means "the deep". I do like the inversion, though.

Peiora (in) mari fiunt (or accidunt, or eveniunt).
posted by Devika at 3:58 AM on August 13, 2010