I am always interested in the uses of Latin in popular culture, from the various mottos of different organizations to the often humorous attempts at Latin tattoos. For fans of the classic TV show, The Gilmore Girls, one prominent appearance of Latin is in the by-words of a secret Yale society, The Life & Death Brigade (loosely based on the Skull & Bones society) whose members perform outrageous and dangerous stunts. Their motto is, In Omnia Paratus.
This phrase is said to translate as “always prepared,” “ready for all things,” or “prepared in everything.” And loosely speaking this is fine. But something about these purported translations bothers me. As translated, the missing verb for a full sentence would be understood to be, “I am (or we are) always prepared.” But “in omnia” is in the accusative which suggests a movement toward or into. So now this suggests an entirely different sentence. Something like, “We go into everything (that we do) preparedly.” And now the “paratus” assumes an adverbial character.
I understand that a participle can sometimes take on an adverbial meaning. Should I assume that to make sense of this phrase it should be translated this way? Again, this is TV Latin on a show that liked to name-check intellectual topics ad libitum, but someone, somewhere on the writers’ staff knew enough to make a plausible sounding motto. Perhaps they were remembering the Marine Corps’ “Semper Paratus” and substituted an “in omnia” for “paratus.” Any comments? Where might I have gone wrong?