"The faint of heart may stay at home" in Latin, please

November 22, 2006 10:58 AM

"The faint of heart may stay at home": Latin translation?

I remember seeing this Latin tag some years ago on a friend's law school t-shirt.

Can any of you classical scholars find the original source or provide a Latin translation?

posted by ottereroticist to writing & language (8 comments total)

Risu inepto res ineptior nulla est.

Next?
posted by ottereroticist at 1:41 PM on November 22, 2006

Risu inepto res ineptior nulla est == There's nothing more foolish than a foolish laugh
posted by Krrrlson at 4:53 PM on November 22, 2006

The closest I got was:

"Ab timidum maneo domi."
posted by black8 at 8:31 PM on November 22, 2006

I don't know the saying -- I'm reconstructing it. Warning: I'm only a student, and not an advanced one.

You want "faint of heart" to be plural, don't you? As in "they may stay home" rather than "he may stay home"?

Timidi domi possunt manere.
Timid men (or mixed group) are able to stay home.

You can also use "remanere" instead of "manere" without a problem. A more literal, but not recommended, option is to replace "timidi" with "infirmi cordum" (or would it be "infirmi cordis" because they have only one heart apiece?).

black8's version is definitely not correct (the infinitive isn't "maneo," the "may" of "may stay home" is ignored, and oh God the locative), but while mine's closer, I'm still not sure it's 100% correct either. I hope someone who knows more comes along.
posted by booksandlibretti at 8:57 PM on November 22, 2006

You could replace timidi with pusillanimi, which literally means little in spirit/courage. I wonder whether home should be plural, too - ie "stay in their homes" rather than "stay in the home". And would this qualify for use of the subjunctive? Something along the lines of:

Pusillanimi in domibus maneant.
posted by greycap at 4:02 AM on November 23, 2006

Or you could just strip out in domibus, because maneo has the sense of stay behind. So pusillanimi maneant would be short and sweet.
posted by greycap at 4:04 AM on November 23, 2006

I think greycap has it. This is the subjunctive (ie "Let the faint of heart remain [at home]").
posted by claudius at 4:37 AM on November 23, 2006

It turns out that the line I was thinking of was actually written in English by Justice Cardozo: "The timorous may stay at home."

Thanks to all of you for your help (except the first commenter, who posted a bogus quotation, since deleted -- hence my "stupid laugh" response).
posted by ottereroticist at 12:39 PM on November 23, 2006