Comments | 21yo_curmudgeon: (без темы)

21yo_curmudgeon

(Untitled)

Dec 28, 2004 23:46

In the Design Toscano catalogue, there's a vodka (or whatever) shotglass set with the blurb:

Perfect for entertaining, our festive 9-piece quality glass Celebratory Set is a fashionable way to say "nostrovia!"

I gaped for a minute or three. Oh, no. They DIDN'T ( Read more... )

Comments 9

illyanadmc December 29 2004, 05:02:28 UTC

i found a couple of things when i googled "nostrovia toast" - one page referenced a serbian grandfather. i am not sure what the word means, so i cannot be of much help! it does seem to be a semi-common toast for some people (at least people who make webpages about toasts).

olde_scratch December 29 2004, 05:52:01 UTC

Hey...when are you coming back down herE?

21yo_curmudgeon January 4 2005, 19:22:39 UTC

The 10th. Patience is a virtue. ^_^

(The comment has been removed)

str8_edge_4ever December 29 2004, 12:23:27 UTC

but it's spelled so very incorrectly...

21yo_curmudgeon January 7 2005, 16:05:41 UTC

Na Zdrowie is the spelling, I think, in Polish. It's slightly different in Russian--something like Nazdorovia. The point is, they were *way* off.

Just a random passerby... maantje January 3 2005, 18:05:29 UTC

Erm, hi. I found your journal by chance and I happened to notice your icon, this one:

( ... )

Re: Just a random passerby... 21yo_curmudgeon January 4 2005, 19:21:25 UTC

I may be wrong, as my knowledge of Greek is *very* limited, but it's supposed to translate to "love is the law, love under will." If I'm way off, please tell me--it would be much appreciated!

Re: Just a random passerby... maantje January 5 2005, 22:32:26 UTC

Well, ειναι ("einai") is the infinitive. The correct form would be εστι ("esti"), "is". νομου ("nomou") indeed means "law", but right now it's written in the genitive, meaning "of law". Correct would be νομον ("nomon"), the accusativus (object). By the way, if you want "love is *the* law, you should have the particle τον ("ton") in front of νομον ("nomon"), but that probably won't fit in the avatar. :P

απο ("apo") means a lot of things, but not "under". What you're looking for is υπο ("upo"). υπο ("upo") goes with the accusativus, but seeing as θελημα ("thelèma") is a genderless word, the nominativus and the accusativus are the same, so you won't have to change that.

I was a bit surprised at the use of αγαπη ("agapè"). You don't see that around much. φιλια ("philia") is used most of the time, for "love". But I suppose it doesn't really matter.

So correct would be: Αγαπη εστι (τον) νομον, Αγαπη υπο θελημα ("Agapè esti (ton) nomon, Agapè upo thelèma"). "Love is (the) law, love under will".

Well, that was fun. :) Hope I helped some.

Re: Just a random passerby... 21yo_curmudgeon January 7 2005, 15:59:51 UTC

Thank you so much!! Ugh, I knew trying to simply translate stuff with internet resources was going to foul me up. Silly languages. ^_^ I'm a bit of an amateur linguist myself, but it seems I just don't have enough time to study them all. I took a year of Latin, but that was years ago--I'll have to refamiliarize myself with declensions. And I started studying a little modern Greek a while back when I was trying to start a new chapter of a sorority at my university. Anyway, thanks for your help, I've been looking for someone to correct that, since I knew I didn't put enough research into it. ^_^