Paul Krugman asked this question as his response to the U.S. International Court of Trade decision soundly thumping Trump’s tariff mania.<\/p>\n
Immediately, I grabbed my Latin-English dictionary.<\/p>\n
“Holy” is easy. It sprung to mind without the dictionary. Sacer<\/em> (sacred to the gods) or sanctus<\/em> (inviolable), or putting the two together, sacrosanctus<\/em> (what is held in veneration). Since Trump is neither god nor inviolable — as the Court just demonstrated — I think I’ll go with the double weight of sacrosanctus<\/em>.<\/p>\n What to do with “shit”? I suspected, and was correct, there is no Latin word for it. I now must wander among euphemisms, although I’m not even going to try “poo,” “poopoo,” or “poop.” Nor “doodoo.” Nor anything to do with baby diapers.<\/p>\n How about “excrement”? Ah, of course. Lest we forget, English is derived from Latin, so excrementum<\/em>. But far more precise is stercus<\/em>, which means “dung, muck, manure,” and as a term of reproach, stercus curiae<\/em>, which I guess could be translated as “shit of the court.”<\/p>\n Nah. Let’s hand curiae<\/em> back to the International Court of Trade and go with stercus sacrosanctus.<\/em> Holy shit!<\/p>\n Post scriptum<\/em>. I have fairly fond memories of translating brilliant Cicero with my father, who’d been a Classics scholar. I trust my herein display of Latin would make him proud.<\/p>\n Post post scriptum<\/em>. I had a good time doing this. I hope you enjoyed it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Krugman asked this question as his response to the U.S. International Court of Trade decision soundly thumping Trump’s tariff mania. Immediately, I grabbed my Latin-English dictionary. “Holy” is easy. It sprung to mind without the dictionary. Sacer (sacred to … Continue reading