The complete saying is Sub Deo Vicimus Ex Loeti... It is on my family's coat of arms... Can anyone help?
2006-12-15 02:49:31 · 2 answers · asked by Joshua H 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
It appears to be another form of "letus", meaning death. But I don't understand the form, as "ex" takes the ablative case, and so this does not make sense grammatically. "Under God we conquer/pull through out of death." (With grammatical reservations.)
2006-12-15 02:56:55 · answer #1 · answered by Doethineb 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I couldn't figure this one out, either - there are only 4 Latin words that start with loe, and this isn't one of them. The oe combination really isn't that common in Latin; the ae ligature is far more frequent. Caicos is correct about the ablative case, too. It should end with an o to be grammatically correct. I did an internet search, and apparently an Irish family has a similar motto, but theirs is even more mispelled that yours (er loei for the last two words). And they could only translate the first 3 words, under God we will conquer. (Vicimus is actually the perfect tense of vinco, so it should say: Under God, we have conquered.)
Perhaps the second part is due to some corrupted version of medieval Latin.
2006-12-15 18:26:25 · answer #2 · answered by Jeannie 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋