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’
Latin for the Information Age
- Man in Space
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Re: Latin for the Information Age
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".
Vicipaedia has expiscatio for "phishing".
Last edited by Ketsuban on Tue Jun 04, 2024 6:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Latin for the Information Age
Laughed out loud at telephonum pomiforme and Netflix, Netflicis.
- Man in Space
- Posts: 1694
- Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2018 1:05 am
Re: Latin for the Information Age
Oh cool! I’ll have to check that out when I’m not about to fall asleep.
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.
I completely forgot that site even existed. Thank you!
Re: Latin for the Information Age
From a later era is Anglo-Saxon Computerese.
Self-referential signatures are for people too boring to come up with more interesting alternatives.