Struggling Librarian

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Dennis K
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Struggling Librarian

Post by Dennis K »

Hi all,
I've have been asked to put the following into Latin. "To ensure higher education to the citizenry". Between the English-Latin Dictionary and the suggestions of a few other librarians I have the following:

"Fidem eruditionis superioris civitati dare"

Am I close? Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Regards
Dennis Krieb
Director, Reid Memorial Library
Lewis & Clark Com. College

amans
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Post by amans »

Hello,

I'd say you're pretty close. I have the following comments. Dare is a very general verb in Latin; depending on the exact meaning you want to convey by "ensure" you might want to consider alternatives, but dare would most certainly make sense. I am, however, not sure if the "to ensure" in your text is simply an infinitive or if there's some sense of purpose behind your quote. Like, if this would be an inscription on a building the implied meaning might be: this building was made... to ensure etc. If this is correct, it is not necessarily conveyed by a Latin infinitive. The cases of the other words are correct and good. You might, however, want to reconsider the word choice in "fidem": do you mean to say faith, belief, trust (in higher education)?

I hope this helps.
A

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benissimus
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Post by benissimus »

dare alone might not be a good choice for "to ensure", but fidem dare appears to me to be a very good handling of the phrase. I too am slightly wary of the infinitive however, though there is nothing grammatically wrong with this phrase as it stands. The only way around this is to reword the translation, something like "we ensure higher education to the citizenry" or "ensuring higher education to the citizenry".
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

Dennis K
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thanks!

Post by Dennis K »

Thanks for looking at this. It sounds like what I have may be ok.

Again, I appreciate your taking the time.

Regards

Dennis K

bingley
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Post by bingley »

I wonder if perhaps you're following the English too closely?

Assuming that this expresses the purpose of the institution, how about: Ad civibus eruditionem superiorem efficiendam.

Literally: for the purpose of bringing about higher education for the citizens.

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