Latin Translation

[LordMulberry]

What is the latin for

"The Student is Always Wrong"?

Thanks

[SimonMorton]

L'allievo � sempre errato

[maximo]

I think the previous answer is Italian rather than latin. From what I can remember from school, I'll try this : scholasticus falsus semper est.

[Octavius]

I think the falsus should be pecco (or similar)

 

[maximo]

scholasticus semper peccat ? ( but doesn't it rather mean to be wrong in the sense of committing a sin ? ) 

[Peter Pedant]

Puer semper peccat

has lots of pp's in it and has the sense

[Quizmonster]

Scholaris errata semper facit.

This translates as 'The student is always making mistakes', which might be closer to the basic idea. Certainly Maximo is right...'peccat' really means 'is sinning' from 'peccatum = sin', which I cannot see as applicable here.

[Octavius]

pecco -are [to make a mistake , go wrong, err or sin]; n. of partic. as subst. peccatum -i, [an error, fault, sin].

[Quizmonster]

According to 'TOED' peccability means capability of sinning and peccancy means sinfulness, both English words derived from Latin peccare = to sin. It certainly seems to lack any suggestion of minor mistakes...this is moral faultiness. The University of British Columbia's online Latin/English dictionary - which is my usual source for such questions - takes the same viewpoint.

I still think, therefore, that any form of the 'peccare' idea is far too strong here.

[Peter Pedant]

o I use Dr Smith's smaller latin english dictionary, John Murray, 1887, wh gives examples;

pecco - miss, mistake, go wrong, err, commit a fault, offend, sin.

with acc, plautus, si unam peccassivisses syllabam

(if you had gone wrong with one syllable.....

can be limited with neuter adjective....

Empedocles multa alia peccat

(E. sins in many other ways)

with in and the accusative:

si quid in te peccavi, in me ipsum peccavi vehementius

(If I have wronged you, I have wrongedmyself more)

The English translations are my own by the way. Pecco can mean more than sin, as the more poetical brethren above obviously sensed

there must be a latinist out there, can they help?

Oh and while we are discussing uses of pecco, dont lets forget Clive of India's coded message when he had taken the Indian town of Sind, "Peccavi"

[Quizmonster]

It was General Charles J Napier who, after crushing the rebellious Sindhis in 1843, sent the message: "Peccavi" = I have sinned...a nice play on the name 'Sind'. Seems like he, too, felt 'peccare' meant 'to sin'. He certainly did not mean to imply "I've made a bit of a boo-boo"!

[Octavius]

Boo Boo - from the latin for whoopsy daisy?