The leader of a right-wing populist party here in Sweden came out with a new book today, called Satis polito. In an interview he admits he don't know how to pronounce it, but says it should be translated as "wellpolished enough" – meaning that he indeed fits in the parliament and amongst the political elite (as opposed to his background, from a small town, being a leader of a marginalized party and so on).
Now I'm just a beginner of Latin, so I don't know, but something tells me it's not entirely gramatically correct, this title. Is it?
Satis polito?
-
- Textkit Zealot
- Posts: 2090
- Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:15 pm
Re: Satis polito?
What's strange about it is that polito is ablative or dative, where you'd expect the nominative case in the absence of any context. He probably found the phrase in a quotation where it modified a noun in the ablative or dative case.
-
- Textkit Neophyte
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 10:15 am
Re: Satis polito?
Right. So it should rather be satis politus (since it's a man) and satis polito would just raise the question of what or who is polished?
-
- Textkit Zealot
- Posts: 3270
- Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:45 pm
Re: Satis polito?
polito is also a future active imperative of the verb polio
et imperativo modo activâ voce futuro tempore
Post scriptum
A mistake it could be, or also a parenthetical ablative absolute: "He [/the man] having been sufficiently polished/educated, ...[the following things happened]"
Mendatum vel ablativum absolutum ut interpositio.
et imperativo modo activâ voce futuro tempore
Post scriptum
A mistake it could be, or also a parenthetical ablative absolute: "He [/the man] having been sufficiently polished/educated, ...[the following things happened]"
Mendatum vel ablativum absolutum ut interpositio.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.