Birds of a feather

[Leizorex]

Trawling for proverbs for my students, I found,

Pares cum paribus facillime congregantur "Likes with likes most easily gather"

Naturally I thought of the English equivalent, "Birds of a feather flock together"

So I came up with Ornes uniae pinnae una concurrent.

No idea if uniae pinnae could possibly be understood like the English idiom. Your thoughts?

Gratias magnas ago!

 

[Laurentius]

It doesn't make much sense in Latin and you'd likely rather say something like "birds of the same feathers", but I am still not sure that an ancient Roman would understand what you mean.

 

[Callaina]

Also, the genitive singular of unus/a/um is unius in all genders, not uniae.

 

[Laurentius]

Also, the genitive singular of unus/a/um is unius in all genders, not uniae.

Oh, I thought he meant to write unicae and it was a typo.

 

[Bitmap]

Pares cum paribus facillime congregantur "Likes with likes most easily gather"

I would simply stick with this one. It is a very good translation of the English proverb...

 

[syntaxianus]

For some background:

Volatilia ad sibi similia conveniunt (Ecclesiasticus 27:10 = Sirach 27:9). (Flying creatures gather with those that are like themselves.)

Aristotle Nic. Ethics 8.1: But there is much difference of opinion as to the nature of friendship. Some define it as a matter of similarity; they say that we love those who are like ourselves: whence the proverbs ‘Like finds his like,’ ‘Birds of a feather flock together,’ [6]

Note 6: Literally [in Greek] ‘Jackdaw to jackdaw.’

Also see Erasmus, Adages: Simile gaudet simili. "Like rejoices in like."

 

[Leizorex]

Yes, Civis, I do like the one I found, but innovation is fun, if seldom either new or an improvement.
Wonderful background, Syntaxianus! In another 2000 years when 98% 0f documents have again vanished, maybe mine will survive by chance not merit.

How about Aves earundem pinnarum una concurrent?

 

[syntaxianus]

Aves similibus pennis congregantur.

Birds of like feathers flock together.

You probably want "similar" rather than "same." Ablative of description seems appropriate.

 

[Callaina]

That feels like it should work well.