Computer le jar?
December 11, 2011 5:49 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for a Latin phrase that sounds something like "computer le jar." My boyfriend's brother passed away this year and this was a saying the brother had that, according to the family, meant something like "seize the day" (this may be completely wrong though) but it wasn't "carpe diem."
What could it have been? I'd really like to create either a t-shirt or poster or possible tattoo for this, with "Computer Le Jar" above a graphic of some sort and whatever the real Latin phrase is below. It's a fond memory that makes everyone laugh and I'd like to give it as a Christmas present.
Any idea what it might be?
What could it have been? I'd really like to create either a t-shirt or poster or possible tattoo for this, with "Computer Le Jar" above a graphic of some sort and whatever the real Latin phrase is below. It's a fond memory that makes everyone laugh and I'd like to give it as a Christmas present.
Any idea what it might be?
Translation:
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
The part that sounds right is 'ce qu'on peut faire le jour' which means 'what you can do today'.
posted by bq at 5:53 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
The part that sounds right is 'ce qu'on peut faire le jour' which means 'what you can do today'.
posted by bq at 5:53 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
Are you absolutely sure it was Latin? "Le jar" would sound a lot like "le jour," which would be "the day" in French.
posted by Bromius at 5:53 PM on December 11, 2011
posted by Bromius at 5:53 PM on December 11, 2011
Response by poster: I considered the French, but his family insists it's Latin.
posted by madred at 5:56 PM on December 11, 2011
posted by madred at 5:56 PM on December 11, 2011
Response by poster: Not that they aren't mistaken. 'ce qu'on peut faire le jour' seems plausible.
posted by madred at 5:58 PM on December 11, 2011
posted by madred at 5:58 PM on December 11, 2011
Could the first word be committere?
The main part that makes it strange is that the soft j sound doesn't really come up in Latin.
posted by kagredon at 6:03 PM on December 11, 2011
The main part that makes it strange is that the soft j sound doesn't really come up in Latin.
posted by kagredon at 6:03 PM on December 11, 2011
Although I suppose it could come from a mistaken reading, since some Latin words look very similar to English words with soft g's.
posted by kagredon at 6:04 PM on December 11, 2011
posted by kagredon at 6:04 PM on December 11, 2011
seize the day in english is translated as diem occupare in latin
posted by JayRwv at 6:18 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by JayRwv at 6:18 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
Could it be "Count the days?" Which in French would be "Comptes/Comptez les jours" Comptez (the formal version) would have a long 'a' sound at the end, while the -es form wouldn't (It would sound like 'Compt')
posted by chndrcks at 6:45 PM on December 11, 2011 [9 favorites]
posted by chndrcks at 6:45 PM on December 11, 2011 [9 favorites]
Best answer: Compter les jours = to count the days
Comptant les jours = counting the days
almost always seems to precede "until" so the idea would be "I'm really looking forward to it." (Or, more gloomily, "I'm just marking time until XYZ happens." Would that fit the context in which he said it?
If not, could you give us a scenario so we could maybe tease out some context?
What a neat remembrance. I hope we can help.
posted by elizeh at 8:01 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
Comptant les jours = counting the days
almost always seems to precede "until" so the idea would be "I'm really looking forward to it." (Or, more gloomily, "I'm just marking time until XYZ happens." Would that fit the context in which he said it?
If not, could you give us a scenario so we could maybe tease out some context?
What a neat remembrance. I hope we can help.
posted by elizeh at 8:01 PM on December 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
Was he an avid reader? The closes I can come phonetically to "computer" with my limited Latin is "caput inter". "Caput inter" is usually seen in the expression "caput inter nubilia" [ (he) plunges his head into the clouds], from the Aenid. Legere means "to read". I've never seen a classical expression combining these two, but if he were a scholar and a voracious reader, he may have coined his own phrase referring to plunging into a book. Problem with that is, as kagredon points out, that "g" sound. If he were a scholar, he'd probably be familiar with that.
Le jar: I came up with lege artis = according to the law of the art; how something should be done correctly. This is usually used in medicine. Was he in the medical profession? If we presume he didn't know about the commonly accepted hard g pronunciation, this has potential.
For my money, though, it seems most probable that the expression was actually French, with that soft "j" so important in the phrase; perhaps he'd been told it was Latin when he first heard it and just took it on faith as correct. It would be helpful to know a bit more about him... was he someone who would have had formal Latin instruction?
This is really interesting... I hope the hive mind can help you.
posted by theplotchickens at 3:06 AM on December 12, 2011
Le jar: I came up with lege artis = according to the law of the art; how something should be done correctly. This is usually used in medicine. Was he in the medical profession? If we presume he didn't know about the commonly accepted hard g pronunciation, this has potential.
For my money, though, it seems most probable that the expression was actually French, with that soft "j" so important in the phrase; perhaps he'd been told it was Latin when he first heard it and just took it on faith as correct. It would be helpful to know a bit more about him... was he someone who would have had formal Latin instruction?
This is really interesting... I hope the hive mind can help you.
posted by theplotchickens at 3:06 AM on December 12, 2011
Come to think of it, "committare legere" would mean "to commit to read"; a (presumably) mistaken soft "j" sound would make this phonetically similar to computer lejar. I don't think it would be a common expression, but it's another potential.
posted by theplotchickens at 3:12 AM on December 12, 2011
posted by theplotchickens at 3:12 AM on December 12, 2011
Cidere leggere? Don't think it's a real expression, but in the sense of "Quit reading/take action already!"
I also find this fascinating, and a frustrating/lovely puzzle to have about someone you've lost. Condolences.
Could you say more about how it sounded like computer le jar? Did he say iron a way that sounded Italian, or just a straight American accent? Which American accent? Does the number of syllables exactly right? Had he studied Latin/would he have been likely to come up with his own thing? So you have any examples of the context in which he used the phrase?
posted by Salamandrous at 3:41 AM on December 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
I also find this fascinating, and a frustrating/lovely puzzle to have about someone you've lost. Condolences.
Could you say more about how it sounded like computer le jar? Did he say iron a way that sounded Italian, or just a straight American accent? Which American accent? Does the number of syllables exactly right? Had he studied Latin/would he have been likely to come up with his own thing? So you have any examples of the context in which he used the phrase?
posted by Salamandrous at 3:41 AM on December 12, 2011 [1 favorite]
Wow, sorry for all the typos.
posted by Salamandrous at 5:06 AM on December 12, 2011
posted by Salamandrous at 5:06 AM on December 12, 2011
Response by poster: Y'all are so helpful!
Was he an avid reader?
He was a reader, but he didn't read in French (nor Latin). He wasn't in the medical profession. My guess is that he ran into (or heard) the quote somewhere, hence the mistranslation.
Also, this is a translation twice removed, since the original brother may have said something pronounced in a more accurate way but the second brother mistranslated it even further.
I think he was saying it in a carpe diem-esque manner, like a slogan or battle cry. He was a fearless cellphone tower technician (as in, he climbed them. ) and was tough as nails, so whatever the original, it would have been in that vein.
posted by madred at 6:18 AM on December 12, 2011
Was he an avid reader?
He was a reader, but he didn't read in French (nor Latin). He wasn't in the medical profession. My guess is that he ran into (or heard) the quote somewhere, hence the mistranslation.
Also, this is a translation twice removed, since the original brother may have said something pronounced in a more accurate way but the second brother mistranslated it even further.
I think he was saying it in a carpe diem-esque manner, like a slogan or battle cry. He was a fearless cellphone tower technician (as in, he climbed them. ) and was tough as nails, so whatever the original, it would have been in that vein.
posted by madred at 6:18 AM on December 12, 2011
Latin doesn't have a written j but it has the g sound (like "gentle") according to that link. And isn't the sound in jar pretty much like the sound in gentle?
posted by hungrytiger at 6:54 AM on December 12, 2011
posted by hungrytiger at 6:54 AM on December 12, 2011
Best answer: Well now... lets see what evidence we have to go on here, and stretch it to breaking point and beyond.
(i) The rhythm of your phrase is close, not an exact match, but close, to the rhythm of the second half of an iambic hexameter: the metre favoured by many classical Latin poets. We might want to look at Horace and Vergil in particular, as they both wrote series of "conversational" poems and enjoyed offering tidbits of homespun wisdom to their readers.
(ii) "Com-puter"... Coud the first word be "Cum" [with] or "Quam" [meaning how much, or so much]??? And the "Jar" sound at the end: a Latin word ending with that long "a" sound would often be an imperative, or a command, which seems to fit your context nicely.
Does that jog any Latin scholar's memory?
Not mine unfortunately. HOWEVER, wait a moment:-
(iii) "Similar in meaning to 'carpe diem', but not carpe diem"...
Well: the phrase "Carpe diem" comes from the last line of a short poem by Horace. The poem ends:-
"... Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero"
The bit in italics, which can stand alone, means "trust as little as possible to tomorrow".
What do you think? It's longer than your phrase, but it has the hard C sound at the beginning, the long vowel sound at the end, and a "p" in the middle. I can almost hear "computer" there if I want to. What do you think? If you want the reference: it's Odes, Book 1, poem eleven, final line.
This is the best I can do for now. As I said - taking the evidence to breaking point and beyond. I wish you well.
posted by genesta at 12:30 PM on December 12, 2011
(i) The rhythm of your phrase is close, not an exact match, but close, to the rhythm of the second half of an iambic hexameter: the metre favoured by many classical Latin poets. We might want to look at Horace and Vergil in particular, as they both wrote series of "conversational" poems and enjoyed offering tidbits of homespun wisdom to their readers.
(ii) "Com-puter"... Coud the first word be "Cum" [with] or "Quam" [meaning how much, or so much]??? And the "Jar" sound at the end: a Latin word ending with that long "a" sound would often be an imperative, or a command, which seems to fit your context nicely.
Does that jog any Latin scholar's memory?
Not mine unfortunately. HOWEVER, wait a moment:-
(iii) "Similar in meaning to 'carpe diem', but not carpe diem"...
Well: the phrase "Carpe diem" comes from the last line of a short poem by Horace. The poem ends:-
"... Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero"
The bit in italics, which can stand alone, means "trust as little as possible to tomorrow".
What do you think? It's longer than your phrase, but it has the hard C sound at the beginning, the long vowel sound at the end, and a "p" in the middle. I can almost hear "computer" there if I want to. What do you think? If you want the reference: it's Odes, Book 1, poem eleven, final line.
This is the best I can do for now. As I said - taking the evidence to breaking point and beyond. I wish you well.
posted by genesta at 12:30 PM on December 12, 2011
So maybe it wasn't Latin or French. Is there any chance that this could have been something in Klingon or Elvish or something, and told the family it was Latin was a joke? Was he a sci-fi/fantasy fan?
posted by elizeh at 7:59 PM on December 12, 2011
posted by elizeh at 7:59 PM on December 12, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Il ne faut jamais remettre au lendemain ce qu'on peut faire le jour même
posted by bq at 5:52 PM on December 11, 2011