"Don't let the bastards get you down!" 1945

[Dan Goncharoff]

SiC transit gloria mundi
DanG


On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 1:03 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Don't let the bastards get you down!" 1945
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Noli bastardi te conterent.
>
> ("Illegitimi" works but it's an obscure medieval Latin formulation.)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Baker, John
> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2012 11:35 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Don't let the bastards get you down!" 1945
>
> So what would the real Latin be?  Enquiring minds want to know.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Neal Whitman
> Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2012 11:09 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Don't let the bastards get you down!" 1945
>
> You're right. It's not funny, because it's bogus Latin. If it had been real
> Latin, like Henry Beard's Latin for All Occasions, it would have been
> funny.
> If it had been the "Romanes eunt domus" part of Monty Python's Life of
> Brian, it would have been funny, because "Romani ite domum" really is what
> it would have been in classical Latin. But this grasping "Illegitimi non
> carborundum" phonus balonus (more bogus Latin, via P.G. Wodehouse) is not
> funny.
>
> Neal
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2012 9:45 PM
> Subject: Re: "Don't let the bastards get you down!" 1945
>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "Don't let the bastards get you down!" 1945
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> >
> > On Sun, May 20, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Laurence Horn
> > <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >> "ILLIGITIMI NON CARBORUNDUM"
> >
> > I haven't seen it written down, before. But, it's been repeated to me
> > a million times. The first 999,999 times, I just didn't get it.
> >
> > What? How does it mean that? "Carborundum" is a brand-name. _Non_ is
> > certainly a negative, but does _illigitimi_ really mean "bastards"?
> > I'm not sure. And there's nothing in the string that means "grind."
> > Besides, I didn't know that you had taken Latin! Was it in high school
> > or in college? Wait. You didn't go to college, right? Let me hear it
> > again.
> >
> > Even after I caught on that it was supposed to be a joke, it still
> > didn't strike me as funny.
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
>
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