Idioms

Iáson

Cívis Illústris

  • Civis Illustris

pendēre animī. Apparently animī may be a fossilised locative.
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
There's a lot of those expressions with animi, like incertus animi, etc. Terence has Antipho me excruciat animi.
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
De scripto dicere = to say from the writing = to read out loud from written text.

A se ortus = born from oneself = self-made as in "a self-made man". Caveat: seems to be used especially in opposition to people with noble ancestry.

In scaena esse = to be on stage = to be visible/apparent/known to the public or so.

I came across all the above in Cicero's Pro Cn. Plancio.
 

Adrian

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

rem acu tangere = lit. "to touch the matter with a needle" = "to hit the nail on the head" (Plautus , Rudens, II.V)
 

Adrian

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

punica fides = "carthaginian trustworthiness" = treachery or betrayal (Sallust, Bellum Iugurthinum)
 

Adrian

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

nuces relinquere = "to abandon nuts" = "to give up one's childish ways" (Persius, Satires)
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
in nuce = lit. "in a nut(shell) = "briefly stated" (Pliny, Naturalis Historia, VII.85)
That's not the way Pliny uses it. Pliny is simply explaining that, according to Cicero, the Iliad had once been enclosed in a nutshell.

in nuce inclusam Iliadem Homeri carmen
in membrana scriptum tradit Cicero.
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
the way you formatted that quote I thought it was a line of poetry
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
It's just PHI's usual weird formatting...
 
 

Dantius

Homo Sapiens

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
in orbe lacteo
I know
 

Iáson

Cívis Illústris

  • Civis Illustris

'tilting at windmills'
 

Callaina

Feles Curiosissima

  • Civis Illustris

  • Patrona

Location:
Canada
While reading Erasmus: simul flare sorbereque haud facile, to drink and whistle at the same time, i. e. to do two things at once, Plaut. Most. 3, 2, 104.—
In English this also exists as "to burn the candle at both ends"
Heh, that's funny, we've got an expression in French that says literally the same thing as "to burn the candle at both ends", "brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts", but it doesn't mean "to do two things at once", it means like to live in such a way that you're not going to live old, or to spend your money in such a way that it won't last long, things like that...

I'm very late to this discussion, but I wouldn't say "to burn the candle at both ends" means to do two things at once -- it's more like what Pacifica said, but specifically it refers to staying up late and getting up early to work, or more generally exhausting oneself for the sake of getting lots done.

A better one for "to do two things at once" is "walk and chew gum at the same time".
 
E

Etaoin Shrdlu

Guest

Apparently that's the sanitised version. What Johnson really said about Ford was that he couldn't fart and chew gum at the same time.
 
Horace - Odes Book 1, Verse 25
sub Iove frigido ≈ 'in the open air'
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
Sub iove is an idiom meaning "in the open air". Frigido is a circumstantial addition.
 
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