NULLA DIES SINE LINEA

[Bert]

Hi. I am learning Greek, not Latin. Here is a question non-the-less.<br />The school where my daughter attends has NULLA DIES SINE LINEA on the crest. (I assume this is Latin ???) Can someone tell me what this means? Thanks in advance.<br />

[benissimus]

NULLA DIES SINE LINEA<br /><br />It looks like "Not a day without flax/thread/string (?)" but "NULLA" does not match "DIES" in gender so if it is meant to match "LINEA" I guess that it would mean "A day without no thread". I seriously hope I have made some idiomatical error or that "DIES" can be found as a feminine...

[vinobrien]

Dies can be masculine or feminine depending on whether it's a normal day or a special day (and I can never remember which is which). Linea is a line (in the ablative).<br /><br />So it's "never a day without a line" (i.e. writing/drawing something), a good motto for a school, but I'd expect more than one line for the amount I pay.<br /><br />Pliny explains the origin<br /><br />Apelli fuit alioqui perpetua consuetudo numquam tam occupatum diem agendi, ut non lineam ducendo exerceret artem, quod ab eo in proverbium venit<br /><br />In general, Apeles always had the habit that he was never so busy with things to be done that day that he would not execise his art by tracing a line, and this came as a proverb from then.<br /><br />I really must get out more.

[benissimus]

I still think my translation made more sense ;P <br />just kidding.........