Idioms

[Imperfacundus]

I know, right. The roman version is much more badass.

 

[Pacifica]

Bene vasatus = well-equipped, i.e. mentulatus.

Read in the Historia Augusta.

 

[Pacifica]

Munditias facere = "to make cleannesses", i.e. "to clean or tidy up"

Just stumbled upon this fortuitously in the dictionary, but it occurs in Plautus and Cato.

 

[Dantius]

manum inicere: 2. In a jurid. sense, to seize, take possession of, as one's property, without a previous judicial decision (which was permitted, e. g. to a master on meeting with his runaway slave; v. injectio)

Found this in that 12 tables sentence "si calvitur pedemve struit, manum endo iacito"

 

[Pacifica]

There's a second idiom there, actually:

pedemve struit

Pedem struere:

to heap up steps, i. e. to flee: SI CALVITVR PEDEMVE STRVIT MANVM ENDOIACITO, Fragm. XII. Tab. ap. Fest. 313

 

[Dantius]

That's true!

 

[Pacifica]

Fumum/fumos vendere = "to sell smoke(s)", i.e. "to make empty promises"

 

[Pacifica]

Omnia summa facere = "to do all utmost things" = "to do one's utmost".

Just chanced upon it in the dictionary; it occurs in Lucilius and Cicero.

 

[Dantius]

Fumum/fumos vendere = "to sell smoke(s)", i.e. "to make empty promises"

Funny, I just saw this in the Iudicium Coci et Pistoris Iudice Vulcano.

Anyway, here's something from the dictionary:
D. Prov.: arcem facere e cloacā, to make a mountain of a mole-hill Cic. Planc. 40.—

 

[Matthaeus]

Funny. I read this one not too long ago here: https://www.latinitium.com/latinproverbs/.

 

[Pacifica]

sunt enim Aegyptii, ut satis nosti, <in>venti ventosi, furibundi, iactantes, iniuriosi atque adeo vani, liberi, novarum rerum usque ad cantilenas publicas cupientes, versificatores, epigrammatarii, mathematici, haruspices, medici.

(Historia Augusta)

I am not sure, but my first interpretation of the above was "to such a point that public songs are made about it", i.e. "famously", "proverbially", or so. I found nothing to either confirm or disprove this.

 

[Dantius]

Another one I found in the dictionary:
Prov.: verba facit emortuo, he talks to the dead, i. e. in vain, Plaut. Poen. 4, 2, 18.

 

[Pacifica]

Cornua vertere in aliquem, "to turn the horns against someone", "to turn against someone". In the context where I read it, the subject was a thing:

Superest ea pars epistulae, quae similiter pro me scripta in memet ipsum uertit cornua; Apuleius talking about a letter the content of which was distorted by his accusers.

 

[Pacifica]

Manum non vertere: "not to turn a hand", that is, "not to do anything, not to make the slightest effort", but also, in the Apuleius passage where I read it, "not to care" (with an indirect question): Sed ego, quid de me Mezentius sentiat, manum non uorterim.

 

[Dantius]

I don't know if this has been posted already, but nihil moror (aliquam rem): I don't care about (something). It's from the judicial phrase nihil morari aliquem meaning "to dismiss (someone)". nihil moror can also take an acc+inf or just an infinitive.

 

[Dantius]

Here's some idioms I found in the dictionary:
clavo clavum eicere, to drive out one nail by another

aliquid trabali clavo figere, to fasten with a large nail, to clinch a matter

 

[cinefactus]

I am sure someone must have posted this. coleos habere: to have balls
Sat 44

 

[AoM]

Achilleid, 1.425

ereptum superis Mars efferat aurum

To turn into weapons, apparently.

 

[Pacifica]

It's an interesting and very nice expression, but I suspect it's an original poetic phrasing rather than an idiom.

 

[AoM]

Oh, that's true.