Word for "forever"

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
kembreg
Textkit Member
Posts: 120
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 12:23 pm
Location: Munich, Germany
Contact:

Word for "forever"

Post by kembreg »

Hi all.

Anyone know a word for "forever".

This is what I have:

Solum pedibus tam fortiter percussit ut per terram caderet et evanesceret in perpetuum.

However, I don't like "in perpetuum".

Any other ideas?

David

User avatar
Lucus Eques
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 2037
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2004 12:52 pm
Location: Pennsylvania
Contact:

Post by Lucus Eques »

You got this from that Latin Rumpelstiltskin, right?
L. Amādeus Rāniērius · Λ. Θεόφιλος Ῥᾱνιήριος 🦂

SCORPIO·MARTIANVS

bellum paxque
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 718
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 2:29 pm
Location: nanun Hanguge issoyo (in Korea sum)
Contact:

Post by bellum paxque »

I think in aeternum can mean "forever." But you may have the same objection to that phrase as you do to in perpetuum.

Do you think it sounds too poetic? You can find it in Catullus ("Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale!").

David

kembreg
Textkit Member
Posts: 120
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 12:23 pm
Location: Munich, Germany
Contact:

Post by kembreg »

To answer 2 posts at once....

The sentence is from Rumpelstilskin, translated by a person in Holland.

The final text will be made available to you shortly.

For the other post, I think "in perpertuum" does not sound like something everyda latin speaks would have used. It sounds very formal and a bit religious.

Any other ideas?

David

cdm2003
Textkit Fan
Posts: 309
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2006 2:54 pm
Location: Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Post by cdm2003 »

kembreg wrote:Any other ideas?
Try sempiterne (as adv.) or sempiternus (as adj.).

Chris

mraig
Textkit Member
Posts: 142
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2004 6:24 am

Post by mraig »

'perpetuo', as well as 'in perpetuum' means 'forever' and is used in the down-to-earth dialogue of Plautus and Terence's comedies.

Or you could just reword the phrase; instead of "vanish forever" you could say "never be seen again". The English expression "vanish forever" seems a tad idiomatic, in that the act of vanishing is not what's going on forever, but the result -- as opposed to something like "The king will rule forever," in which 'forever' is actually giving a timeframe for the action of the verb (rather than its outcome).

I do see some examples of Latin "perire perpetuo" which is more or less the same thing, so maybe I'm worried for nothing. But I have found that, in Latin composition, sometimes I (and thus, by extension, everyone else) get caught in the trap of not realizing how idiomatic and non-literal some common English expressions might be.

Post Reply