Finders Keepers
September 20, 2013 6:53 PM   Subscribe

How do I say "Finders, Keepers" in Latin?
posted by Raybun to Writing & Language (17 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Google Translate gives "Inuentoribus, custodes"

I don't know if someone fluent in Latin would agree, however.
posted by 1367 at 7:22 PM on September 20, 2013


Ego sum custos et inventoris. Victus es et plorantium.
I am the finder and the keeper. You are the loser and the weeper.


or

Inuentoribus custodientes victos flentium.
Finders keepers losers weepers.

I'm familiar with the first usage from a strict Non gummi consilium in class.
posted by Nanukthedog at 7:23 PM on September 20, 2013 [10 favorites]


It would help to know the context. It's hard to idiomatically translate short phrases out of context.
posted by zeri at 7:49 PM on September 20, 2013


(Nanukthedog's translations are ungrammatical, as is the Google translate version given by 1367.)
posted by zeri at 7:58 PM on September 20, 2013 [3 favorites]


My best shot: Qui inveniat, habeat. (Not totally sure about the moods and tenses here; maybe some better Latinist can confirm or correct this.)
posted by zeri at 8:14 PM on September 20, 2013 [2 favorites]


Nactores tentores. I can't figure out why the Google translation linked above uses the dative or ablative for "finders," but I think the sense is wrong for both of their translated words anyway.
posted by stopgap at 9:15 PM on September 20, 2013


Unless you have a particular reason for wanting an original translation(!!), I have to think that there is a Latin primary source for this very idea. Even Google says that "finders keepers" has its origin in Roman law (and that in still more ancient law, probably). I would ask a classics librarian or law librarian, worst case. Or google "res nullius" (no one's thing, an item belonging to no one). That will eventually get you the actual way to say it. Or look through lists of Latin aphorisms.
posted by skbw at 9:38 PM on September 20, 2013 [4 favorites]


stopgap, nactor isn't in any of the dictionaries at the Perseus Project, and tentor appears to be a word for "a sort of servant or attendant employed at chariot races" attested only in inscriptions, so I don't think that can be right.
posted by zeri at 9:43 PM on September 20, 2013


See here for example. "Et eo magis, quia inuentores rerum inuentarum non efficiuntur domini..." (Roughly, "and moreover, the finders are not made owners of the things found.") Words of Pope Paul in 1618, but I find it hard to believe that this would deviate very far from the classical vocabulary, this being an old matter. Custos is more a guard, as in custodian.

So inuentores domini would be my best shot, but I object on principle to the original composition idea.
posted by skbw at 10:20 PM on September 20, 2013 [1 favorite]


Tentor is probably the guy who holds the reins?
posted by skbw at 10:26 PM on September 20, 2013


Keeper like zookeeper.
posted by Iteki at 11:47 PM on September 20, 2013


Both nactores and tentores are forms derived from the past participles of verbs, so they wouldn't be the primary entry in any dictionary. Nactores comes from nanciscor, nancisci, nactus sum, and tentores comes from teneo, tenere, tenui, tentus.
posted by stopgap at 7:15 AM on September 21, 2013


The proper grammatical term apparently is "agent noun" or "agentive noun." You'll notice that both finders and keepers are English plural agent nouns, so it only makes sense that the Latin forms we're looking for would be as well.
posted by stopgap at 7:30 AM on September 21, 2013


Tenet quicunque invenit.

(I can feel the teacher's fingers on my ear already. How many Romans?)
posted by Segundus at 8:10 AM on September 21, 2013


"Seek and ye shall find" is qui quaerit invenit in the Vulgate, to combine Segundus' and Zeri's approaches.
posted by skbw at 8:40 AM on September 21, 2013


But this commenter in another thread has some good advice. Find a primary source and have done!
posted by skbw at 8:43 AM on September 21, 2013


stopgap, there are hundreds of agent nouns in -tor listed in Lewis and Short, but nactor isn't among them, nor tentor with the required meaning, which makes me think that those words are not known to have been used in Latin.
posted by zeri at 7:12 PM on September 21, 2013 [1 favorite]


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