Latin for the Information Age

Conworlds and conlangs
Post Reply
User avatar
Man in Space
Posts: 1694
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 1:05 am

Latin for the Information Age

Post by Man in Space »

I was debating whether to post this here or in Ephemera. I ultimately came down on here because I feel there's at least some intellectual merit to discussing it, frivolous though it be.

I was going through some stuff from a ways ago and I found a listing I had made of Latin terms for modern technologies and the like. Some of these are more frivolous than others (and college Latin was over a decade ago now…), but they are all at least somewhat sincere in their attempts. The specific list of terms below was significantly influenced to then-current events.) Question is, is there anything more conventional for any of this? Or could any of these be improved upon?

acus (-us) trevola (-ae) (f.) ‘USB’ (‘three-flying needle’, because USB-A plugs always needed three rotations to seat properly)
aegror (-oris) (in silico) ‘malware’ (‘disease (in silicon)’) (I want to say this is at least semi-conventional based on some quick research?)
blox, blogis (f.) ‘blog’
bucca, -ae (f.) ‘byte’ (< ‘mouth(ful)’)
cepa, -ae (f.) ‘VPN’ (< ‘onion’)
Colloquium (-i) Danicum (-i) ‘Bluetooth’ (“Danish conversation”)
damno (-are, -avi, -atum) memoriam ‘to cancel (s.o.)’ (damnatio memoriae)
error CDIV ‘404’
frena, -ae (n.) ‘bit’ (< frenum ‘bit, metal in horse’s mouth’, by analogy with bucca (v.s.) converted to a first-declension feminine)
furtum (-i) culturivorum (-i) (n.) ‘DRM’ (“culture-devouring theft”)
haurio, haurire, hausi, haustum ‘to stream’
inbox, inbocis (f.) ‘inbox’ (also outbox, outbocis)
Larva (-ae) Veneta (-a) ‘BSoD’ (‘blue death mask’)
mercenarium, -i (m.) ‘app’ (< ‘that which is hired for pay’)
minister, -ri (m.) ‘server’ (if some apparently misspelt Wiktionary clues are any indication this is actually standard)
Monero, -inis (m.) ‘Monero (cryptocurrency)’
Netflix, -icis (f.) ‘Netflix’
Nexus (-us) Aerignus (-i) (m.) ‘Ethernet’
piskor, piskari, piskatus sum ‘to phish’ (use of “k” intentional here)
pollex (-icis) cerebrifer (-i) (m.) ‘thumbdrive’ (“brain-bearing thumb”)
res (rei) imfungibilis (-is) (f.) ‘NFT’
telephonum (-i) automatum (-i) (n.) ‘Android Phone’ (“automatic (~ automaton) phone”)
telephonum (-i) pomiforme (-is) (n.) ‘iPhone’ (“apple-formed phone”)
testudo, -inis (m.) ‘firewall’ (< ‘shield wall military formation’ < ‘tortoise’)
tilia, -ae (f.) ‘torrent, P2P download’ (lit. ‘lime’)
Via (-ae) Pneumatica (-ae) (f.) ‘Internet’ (“the (pneumatic) tube path/way/road”)
vicarius, -i (m.) ‘proxy (server)’ (< ‘authorized agent’; masculine by analogy with minister)
Virga, -ae ‘AirDrop’ (< ‘virga’)
universitas (-tatis) poetica (-ae) (f.) ‘cinematic universe’
User avatar
Ketsuban
Posts: 177
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 6:10 pm

Re: Latin for the Information Age

Post by Ketsuban »

There's the venerable Vocabula computatralia, of course, but it's a bit more indepth techy (most people don't need words for assembler or screenmode) and shows its age in having entries for IRC and cyberspace (the latter especially is terribly quaint now that the prefix cyber- has become the domain of out-of-touch politicians). There's also the Vatican's Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis.

Vicipaedia has expiscatio for "phishing".
Last edited by Ketsuban on Tue Jun 04, 2024 6:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ares Land
Posts: 3021
Joined: Sun Jul 08, 2018 12:35 pm

Re: Latin for the Information Age

Post by Ares Land »

Laughed out loud at telephonum pomiforme and Netflix, Netflicis.
User avatar
Man in Space
Posts: 1694
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 1:05 am

Re: Latin for the Information Age

Post by Man in Space »

Ketsuban wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2024 1:24 am There's the venerable Vocabula computatralia
Oh cool! I’ll have to check that out when I’m not about to fall asleep.
Ketsuban wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2024 1:24 amThere's also the Vatican's Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis.
I actually do have a copy of that on hand. The issue is the metalanguage is Italian, which I don’t know to any appreciable extent.
Ketsuban wrote: Tue Jun 04, 2024 1:24 am Vicipaedia has expiscatio for "phishing".
I completely forgot that site even existed. Thank you!
User avatar
alice
Posts: 962
Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2018 11:15 am
Location: 'twixt Survival and Guilt

Re: Latin for the Information Age

Post by alice »

From a later era is Anglo-Saxon Computerese.
Self-referential signatures are for people too boring to come up with more interesting alternatives.
Post Reply