E (huh) Unum?

September 5, 2007 9:00 AM

Help me with a Latin phrase for a reading at a wedding ceremony.

So, I'm writing a piece that I'll be reading at a wedding this weekend. Riffing on the Vonnegutian notion that a marriage is like a small country, I want to modify E Pluribus Unum to refer to two people instead of an amorphous "many." How would I do so?

posted by COBRA! to Writing & Language (18 answers total)

Best answer: E duobus unum, perhaps?
posted by jquinby at 9:33 AM on September 5, 2007

Response by poster: That certainly sounds plausible to me (to be honest, I'm guessing plausible's probably good enough, since I doubt there'll be a lot of Latin-speakers at the wedding).

Thanks!
posted by COBRA! at 9:37 AM on September 5, 2007

It's been a while since I've thought about Latin but:

E duo unum.

Others please verify.
posted by strangeguitars at 9:37 AM on September 5, 2007

The exact translation of E pluribus unum is, "out of many (is) one," where "E" is the "from/out of" and "pluribus" is "many" and "unum" is "one". So if you want to say "out of many (is) two," it'd be "E pluribus duo."
posted by xo at 9:39 AM on September 5, 2007

Ah, whoops, yeah, if you want to say "out of two (is) one," then what strangeguitars says above.
posted by xo at 9:41 AM on September 5, 2007

But I think since it's a wedding, he wants to say "out of two (is) one....
posted by strangeguitars at 9:41 AM on September 5, 2007

Response by poster: Duo over duobus, for sure?
posted by COBRA! at 9:43 AM on September 5, 2007

I don't think there's a duobus in the declension, but I'm looking it up. I think the ablative of duo is duo.
posted by strangeguitars at 9:46 AM on September 5, 2007

Could be - I cribbed from a file of aphorisms and such. My spidey-sense about declensions is weak.
posted by jquinby at 9:46 AM on September 5, 2007

working from Whitaker's Words, I get:

=>duobus

du.obus NUM 1 2 DAT P M CARD
du.obus NUM 1 2 ABL P M CARD
du.obus NUM 1 2 ABL P N CARD
duo -ae o, secundus -a -um, bini -ae -a, bis NUM
2 - (CARD answers 'how many')

posted by jquinby at 9:47 AM on September 5, 2007

strangeguitars is correct.
posted by briank at 9:49 AM on September 5, 2007

According to Wikipedia I'm not. I guess it's duobus.
posted by strangeguitars at 9:52 AM on September 5, 2007

e duo unum or you could say unum et unum duo (1+1=2)
posted by francesca too at 9:55 AM on September 5, 2007

oops it should be unus (male) et una (female) duo (plural)
posted by francesca too at 9:58 AM on September 5, 2007

It should be e duobus unum.

e - "out of", preposition that takes the ablative
duobus - "two", ablative form of the irregular adjective duo
unum - "one", nominative subject
posted by Smallpox at 10:11 AM on September 5, 2007

Yes. "Duobus" is correct.
posted by trip and a half at 10:25 AM on September 5, 2007

Unless it's a lesbian wedding: E duabus unam.
posted by xueexueg at 10:41 AM on September 5, 2007

Goddammit, E duabus una. And to think my mind wandered back to this topic when I was considering other commenters hastily ill-informed.
posted by xueexueg at 2:06 PM on September 5, 2007