Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Here you can discuss all things Latin. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Latin, and more.
Post Reply
OmnisCellula
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:10 am

Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Post by OmnisCellula »

Hello,

Our biology group has decided to name our project something Latin in keeping with Rudolf Virchow's statement "Omnis cellula e cellula" (all cells from cells). Our topic is cell evolution and we want to say:
All Cells from Elements: The Origins of Life
We understand Google Translate is probably incorrect, which gives us different results depending on if a period was added to the English. There it says:
Part 1: Omnia quae de cellulis. (for "All cells from elements.")

Part 2: Initium vitæ. (for "The Origins of Life.")
Will you help us clean that up? The last focus is punctuation. As in English, will a colon be fine separating the two?

Thank you very much. We really appreciate the help.

mwh
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 4790
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:34 am

Re: Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Post by mwh »

This should do:
omnis cellula ex elementis: origines vitae. This is literally "Every cell from elements: the origins of life." Or better might be "origo vitae," "the origin of life" (origin singular, as in The O. of Species), unless you're insisting on multiple origins.
Colon is fine.

Google translations are useless but hilarious.

Qimmik
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 2090
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:15 pm

Re: Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Post by Qimmik »

How about fons vitae or (plural) fontes vitae?

Fons is a source or a spring (i.e., literally, a place from which groundwater emerges).

adrianus
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 3270
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:45 pm

Re: Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Post by adrianus »

Et/also "causa vivi" = "origin(s) of life"
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.

mwh
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 4790
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:34 am

Re: Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Post by mwh »

"causa vivi" ("the cause of a living man"??) too ambiguous and imprecise. "causa" has too wide a range of meaning, and "of life" has to be "vitae."
"Fons" is metaphorical, "fons vitae" a fine phrase but in scientific context "origo" (or "origines," if several origins) better, I'd say -- the exact right term, in fact, even apart from its evocation of the Darwinian classic.

adrianus
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 3270
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:45 pm

Re: Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Post by adrianus »

mwh wrote:"causa vivi" ("the cause of a living man"??) too ambiguous and imprecise. "causa" has too wide a range of meaning, and "of life" has to be "vitae."
That silly. There are many options, and options used in scientific treatises.
Ineptum est. Multae sunt optiones in operibus scientiae.
"causa vivi" = "the origin/cause of a living being" (masculini vel feminini neutriusve generis)
"Omne vivum ex vivo." = "All life comes from life." = "Every living thing comes from a living thing."
Mundus ortus, orbis origo, nascentis mundi exordia, conditi orbis primordia = the origin of the world
Plantarum ortus, plantarum origo, satarum plantarum prima exordia = the origin of plants
Also Anima, spiritus = Life
A cause of life and death = causa capitis
Ad vivum = to life / lifelike / realistically
Life or liveliness = vigor
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.

mwh
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 4790
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:34 am

Re: Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Post by mwh »

Oh dear. My silliness has been exposed. I really must learn to think before I write.

adrianus
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 3270
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:45 pm

Re: Grammar help: A play on an existing Latin phrase

Post by adrianus »

mwh wrote:Oh dear. My silliness has been exposed. I really must learn to think before I write.
That's always good,—and to have read and understood the scientific contexts you mention.
Bonum tibi ipsi consilium,—et istos contextus scientiae legere et intellegere.
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.

Post Reply