Modern Words in Latin

  • Thread starter Thread starter TheDarrenator
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

TheDarrenator

Guest
I understand that the Church’s (and Pope’s) official documents are written in Latin first.

How are modern things such as television and the Internet discussed since Latin is a dead language? Does the Church make up words for these things?

Just curious.
 
Some Vatican documents are composed in Latin first, some aren’t.

The most recent CCC was composed in French and then translated to various languages, including Latin.

As for words for television, internet, etc … I dunno. I doubt that they come up much in encyclicals and stuff, though.
 
cogitans machina is a popular word for computer that the Classical league uses. it means thinking machine and refers to computer.
 
Yes, they have modern words for Latin ideas. Remember, most of our words come from either Greek or Latin, so its not a far stretch. Television, Greek for " see from afar".

I remember reading an article about it during the Council. Boy scout is puer exploratus, etc. It works.
 
Darrenator:
How are modern things such as television and the Internet discussed since Latin is a dead language? Does the Church make up words for these things?
Click to expand...
Darrenator,

Remember that the same problem applies to every language, alive or dead. For instance, “computer” is a word conceived in the US; non-English speaking nations have the same issue - they, too have to now create a word for it.

The US and UK are among the few first-world nations that don’t have a structured means to do so. In France, the registration of new words is the responsibility of The French Academy, which was established in the 17th century to purify the French language. It doesn’t create words, but registers those that it deems worthy of approval, inasmuch as they have been approbation by authority of usage by the best writers and proper society.

In the UK, a decision to include a word in the OED is the closest thing that exists to official sanction. Here in the US, it’s the decision of Merriam-Webster to include a word in its dictionaries (inclusion by American Heritage, the next most prestigious and accepted US dictionary, carries nowhere near the unofficial blessing that accrues from Merriam-Webster doing so).

Many years,

Neil
 
Irish_Melkite said:
For instance, “computer” is a word conceived in the US; non-English speaking nations have the same issue - they, too have to now create a word for it.
Click to expand...
The word “computer” is older than the US.

The US was declared in 1776. The OED’s oldest quotation of “computer” is from 1646.
 
It’s not really a dead language, it’s just that your average person no longer speaks it. The Latin words for television, internet, and computer are televisio, interrete, and computatrum. Many new words are made up in Latin before their English, Italian, or French translations come about. Latin is also still taught in some schools; for example a Harvard student gives an address in very fluent Latin ever year.

… and I just realized this thread is 10 years old. :eek:
 
It’s not really a dead language, it’s just that your average person no longer speaks it. The Latin words for television, internet, and computer are televisio, interrete, and computatrum. Many new words are made up in Latin before their English, Italian, or French translations come about. Latin is also still taught in some schools; for example a Harvard student gives an address in very fluent Latin ever year.

… and I just realized this thread is 10 years old. :eek:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top