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

[Herb Stahlke]

We discussed this in a high school Latin class back in the late 1950s
and came to the same conclusion:  dative of agent with the gerundive.
Bogus Latin should at least work grammatically, at least for high
school juniors.

Herb

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 5:27 PM, Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Don't let the bastards get you down!" 1945
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Possibility: Illegitimis non carborundum est. Dative of agent (illegitimis)
> used with the passive periphrastic (carborundum is a gerundive)
> construction. At least that's how one of my Latin professors solved the
> puzzle when I asked her about the more common variant, "Illegitimi non
> carborundum"--which I just couldn't parse.
>
> Eric
>
> On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 11:35 AM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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