How would one say "slutty angels" in Latin?
October 25, 2015 2:12 PM   Subscribe

A friend is hosting a horror movie night this Friday, and even though it's an otherwise Halloween-themed get-together, the invitation specified "Don't wear your slutty angel costume; this is not that kind of party." So my partner and I have decided we need to wear wings and get t-shirts made that say something approximating "slutty angels" in Latin. (Or "wanton" or "lascivious" or whatever is actually translatable.) I'd like it to be at least nominally grammatical. Help?
posted by psoas to Writing & Language (6 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I'm sure classicists will come by with better translations, but I think "Angeli lascivi" is both correct and easy for non-Latin-speakers to understand.
posted by phoenixy at 3:03 PM on October 25, 2015


Here's another possibility. A "slutty angel" is generally assumed to be female, but the Latin is angelus, which takes a male ending. So an adjectival version of meretricis (whore) wouldn't work.

The term for a male prostitute, however, is scortum (no, not scrotum). The adjectival form is scorteus, so angelus scorteus might work.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not so coincidentally), however, scortum also translates as "leather." So perhaps your slutty angel, in this case, would actually be a "leather angel" and not only male, but seriously into BDSM? Might be kind of amusing, but probably tedious to explain.
posted by tully_monster at 3:09 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


I think Angeli meretricii would be a closer literal translation, basically "whorish angels". But maybe less obvious without an explicit translation. So maybe better: Angeli impudentes "shameless angels".
posted by Creosote at 3:09 PM on October 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Just for reference, we (and most of the party guests) are male.
posted by psoas at 5:27 PM on October 25, 2015


Best answer: All of the above phrases are masculine in Latin, so they'd work. But here's one more idea: Angeli libidinosi. "Lecherous" or "libidinous angels", and should be understandable without needing translation.

Or one final thought: Angeli fornicarii, "angels who are fornicators" aka "fornicating angels" but with more of a moral than a physical sense, so pretty close to "slutty" in feeling. It's not perfect idiomatic Latin but would do the job.
posted by Creosote at 6:04 PM on October 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! We've narrowed it down to "lascivi" or "libidinosi" (for ease of comprehension), but the Latin lesson is altogether welcome.
posted by psoas at 7:09 AM on October 26, 2015


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