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

[Laurence Horn]

On May 21, 2012, at 5:43 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> But isn't it true that the Romans made gerundive constructions snappier by
> dropping the conjugated form of _esse_?

Snappier, perhaps, but not for the likes of Cato:  "Carthago delenda est"!  "Carthago delenda" wouldn't have had the same ring.  And destroyed Carthage certainly was, so it must have been snappy enough.

LH
>
> Anyway, my high-school Latin teacher (ca1964) was familiar with one form of
> the phrase ("Illegitimis non carborundum," IIRC, but don't quote me), which
> he associated with his Army service in WW2.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 5:27 PM, Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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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:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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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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>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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