How do you pronounce "visible from orbit" in Latin?
April 29, 2012 6:42 AM Subscribe
How do you say "Visible from Orbit" in Latin?
If relevant, the context is that the text would be the motto of a girls' soccer team, placed on their team crest. The phrase is in reference to the team color, fuchsia.
If relevant, the context is that the text would be the motto of a girls' soccer team, placed on their team crest. The phrase is in reference to the team color, fuchsia.
Best answer: I think I'd go for "videtur ex astra" ("seen from the stars").
posted by ob1quixote at 8:41 AM on April 29, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by ob1quixote at 8:41 AM on April 29, 2012 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I don't mean to threadsit, but I figured I might as well clarify my answer:
Galileo, at least in Sidereus Nuncius, refers to the orbit of planets around the sun as an "orbis." If the idea of "orbis" meaning "orbit" in our modern sense (a body rotating around another body, held by gravity) isn't exactly classical, similar concepts are very old. The idea of heavenly bodies' motion as "orbis" is certainly classical - Cicero, for instance, refers to "sidera circulos suos orbesque conficiunt," the stars in their circuits making orbits.
If you're going for classical Latin, "seen from the stars" is probably a more sensible phrase to translate (particularly because I can't think of a word in Latin that literally means simply "visible" without additional baggage - you end up with a phrase like "obvious from the stars" or "prominent from the stars"), though it should be "videtur ex astris" - "ex" always takes the ablative.
posted by Oxydude at 10:10 AM on April 29, 2012 [3 favorites]
Galileo, at least in Sidereus Nuncius, refers to the orbit of planets around the sun as an "orbis." If the idea of "orbis" meaning "orbit" in our modern sense (a body rotating around another body, held by gravity) isn't exactly classical, similar concepts are very old. The idea of heavenly bodies' motion as "orbis" is certainly classical - Cicero, for instance, refers to "sidera circulos suos orbesque conficiunt," the stars in their circuits making orbits.
If you're going for classical Latin, "seen from the stars" is probably a more sensible phrase to translate (particularly because I can't think of a word in Latin that literally means simply "visible" without additional baggage - you end up with a phrase like "obvious from the stars" or "prominent from the stars"), though it should be "videtur ex astris" - "ex" always takes the ablative.
posted by Oxydude at 10:10 AM on April 29, 2012 [3 favorites]
The pope in one of his yearly sermons uses the term urbi et orbi with the meaning "the city and the whole world". I think this meaning of orbis could pollute the Galilean meaning?
posted by patrick54 at 12:31 PM on April 29, 2012
posted by patrick54 at 12:31 PM on April 29, 2012
Response by poster: We went with Videtur ex Astris -- thanks a bunch for the ideas, explanations and refinements!
posted by Doofus Magoo at 8:27 AM on May 3, 2012
posted by Doofus Magoo at 8:27 AM on May 3, 2012
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posted by Oxydude at 7:55 AM on April 29, 2012