Kinky Latin help needed

August 1, 2011 2:19 PM

Latin D/s filter: This is for an ownership tattoo for a submissive/slave belonging to Lady Macbeth. Mimicking the phrase used to mark books, Ex libris Lady Macbeth, how would you say "From the stables of Lady Macbeth"? The stables being where one keeps horses. Alternatively, "A slave belonging to Lady Macbeth".

This is what I came up with, but I've never taken Latin so I'm completely unsure:

1. From the stables of Lady Macbeth: Ex stabuli Lady Macbeth.
2. A slave belonging to Lady Macbeth: Ex servorum Lady Macbeth.

Which do you think makes more sense? I lean towards 2, because the first implies perhaps that the object being marked is itself a stable.

Thanks for your help!

posted by anonymous to Writing & Language (9 answers total)

My Latin is rusty, but I think it would Ex stabula de Lady Macbeth.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 2:34 PM on August 1, 2011

In the Vulgate, the phrase "Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ" from Romans 1:1 reads "Paulus, servus Christi Iesu"
posted by jquinby at 2:35 PM on August 1, 2011

The problem you're going to run into here is that 'Lady Macbeth' isn't Latin, so sometihng like:

Servus Lady Macbeth

doesn't make sense. Servus is nominative, and you need Lady Macbeth to be in genitive case (which would means 'of Lady Macbeth'). If you're using an English, non-genitive case word, you might as well say Lady Macbeth's Slave, at that point.
posted by empath at 2:56 PM on August 1, 2011

Also, Greeks and Romans generally marked their slaves with brands, I think, rather than tattoos, and I think generally would have used a single letter to mark them, just like livestock.

This one is just flat wrong, btw, so don't use it:

Ex servorum Lady Macbeth.
posted by empath at 3:06 PM on August 1, 2011

The Latin Translator. They will be able to translate it for you, with the connotation you require. Spend the money.
posted by elle.jeezy at 3:08 PM on August 1, 2011 [3 favorites]

What Elle said. Also I think Latin has gendered nouns so that will be required as well.
posted by By The Grace of God at 3:12 PM on August 1, 2011

I would say:

Servum Dominae MacBethae

(lit: Slave of the Lady of the MacBeths?)
posted by empath at 3:18 PM on August 1, 2011

empath, OP is mimicking the long tradition of book plates which read "Ex Libris Jane Smith", where Jane Smith does not take the genitive. (You could decline Macbeth if you really wanted to, but it would look ugly.)

OP, the preposition "ex" takes the ablative in Latin, so you would want "ex stabulo" [stable] or "ex stabulis" [stables] or "ex servis" [slaves].

Take that with grain of salt and check with live translator.
posted by dontjumplarry at 3:19 PM on August 1, 2011

(OP, that's not the regulation way of saying "a slave of Lady X", which is simply "servus/serva dominae X", but that has a bit of a Google Translate air about it even though it's correct, and I would avoid).
posted by dontjumplarry at 3:29 PM on August 1, 2011