I just went over a section on names, and naming with my Comp 2 class. We had a fun and interesting discussion, in which many of the students learned a lot about themselves and each other. We read snippets of blogs like this one from Spastic Onomastic. I tried not to limit it just to our own names but wanted to draw attention to our naming of things, and the connotations a word or sound contains...I think it got a little over my head, personally. Maybe they just weren't buying it.
Anywho, it got me thinking about the name of this blog, previously "Meanderings" which has never satisfied me. Of course, it was somewhat appropriate, as that's just what this is--meandering through mental corridors. Still, it has always irked me. It was a title I slapped on, regrettably, without much thought. So, its Friday night and I'm up late reading Virgil (ah, gradschool), and I stumbled across this phrase I had forgotten I was in love with: mirabile dictu*. Memories of undergraduate Latin classes swarmed my brain (swarmed...sorry, I'm at the part in Georgics with the bees) and it seemed like a more appropriate title for my outlook as of late. Meanderings is too emo for me.
Maybe, on a bad day, I should have an alter-ego blog titled "Osculare Fundamentum" We shall see.
*If I am embarassing myself by misapplying the term please let me know, but I just love it. It means "wonder to relate" or "happy to tell you" etc. I likes it.
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4 comments:
O, it's lovely; don't worry about the particulars. We're from the generation where to feel any love for Latin at all puts us well ahead of the game. Sic transit gloria mundi.
It's actually sort of Tragic, isn't it? We know just enought to appreciate this stuff, but we can't know if we're doing it right because we aren't required to know, and who's got the time to learn? I wanted to make some complicated declension/conjugation joke about just who's going to osculare whose fundamentum, getting comedy out of noun-classes and case-marking. But that's entirely beyond my meagre Latin skills. And probably my comic skills, as well, but I would've thought it was funny.
Anyway, you'd have to ask Dr. Virago's friend Milton about all that, as you probably know. Well-versed in Virgil, etc. And oh-so-approachable. :)
As much as I like the idea of Osculare Fundamentum (after all, "Quod She" is meant, in part, to reference the moment from the Miller's Tale I quote -- the moment just after it's own osculare fundamentum moment), you then wouldn't be able to wear that t-shirt you had made around campus unless you want to out your blog!
Besides, mirabile dictu is a little more positive and it suits you.
Ere, its own osculare fundamentum moment. Not "it's." Gr.
Thank you, Dr. Z and Dedalus, for your affirmation! Dedalus, I too would like to have something wise and witty to share about declensions etc, but it would require dusting off notes from undergraduate latin. I'm just going to run with it. After all, as Dr. Z said, mirabile dictu suits me better. Oh, and Dr. Z: I haven't worn the osculare fundamentum shirt lately--I feel that it was ill planned. If the person seeing it doesn't understand the Latin, they figure I'm just pretentious. And if they DO understand it (or after I've explained it them) well, then they hafta figure I'm just pretty rude. It's a Latin version of one of those obnoxious "attitude" t-shirts that I find so distasteful. Following this pattern, my next homemade Latin t-shirt should say "Lequere mannui" (Talk to the hand--I think. As much as I'd like to, it might be awkward to approach Milton on sassy english to Latin phrases)
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