Drama

[Tironis]

How would you say in Latin "Don't be such a drama queen"? Not thinking of anyone in particular!!

 

[Pacifica]

Sweet Jesus. That's not an easy one.

My first idea was omitte cothurnos. Cothurni were worn by tragic actors and thus symbolize tragedy. Therefore I was thinking that, in the right context, it could be understood to mean "stop behaving like a tragic actor". However I'm afraid that a Roman might have taken it more as "stop talking in such high poetic style". So I'm not sure it really works.

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

Surely someone at some time must have said it to Cicero, although I appreciate that it may not have been preserved. Alas.

 

[scrabulista]

There's the Italian prima donna....the Latin equivalent would be prima domina...

 

[Bestiola]

There is also "diva", with a very similar meaning.

 

[Bestiola]

But if you're searching for female theatrical characters in ancient Rome, perhaps those doing mime ("mima") would suffice. How dramatic they were it's hard to say.

 

[Tironis]

But if you're searching for female theatrical characters in ancient Rome, perhaps those doing mime ("mima") would suffice. How dramatic they were it's hard to say.

I was thinking more of Nero - surely the Ur Drama Queen - and Livia, Agrippina etc.

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I don't know whether we'll find a suitable Latin phrase that we could use should we suddenly be transported back to the late Republic and find ourselves being confronted by the windy bore -- I hope we do -- but given that we're an international crowd here, could non-English speakers tell us what the equivalent is in their languages?

 

[Bestiola]

I was thinking more of Nero - surely the Ur Drama Queen - and Livia, Agrippina etc.

Tacitus was writing about Livia as "gravis mater, gravis noverca". Dunno whether that is applicable.

postremo Livia gravis in rem publicam mater, gravis domui Caesarum noverca.

Cornelius Tacitus, Annales, LIBER I, chapter 10

www.perseus.tufts.edu

 

[Bestiola]

According to the neologism dictionary, we just have it literally translated as "kraljica drame", but in the newspapers and social media they'll usually leave the English original. We also use the Italian "primadonna" without the dubble "n" as in "primadona". Only in the times of the ustashi regime were our linguists (overly) creative.

Veljača | 2017 | Rječnik neologizama | Page 2

rjecnik.neologizam.ffzg.unizg.hr

 

[Pacifica]

I don't know whether we'll find a suitable Latin phrase that we could use should we suddenly be transported back to the late Republic and find ourselves being confronted by the windy bore -- I hope we do -- but given that we're an international crowd here, could non-English speakers tell us what the equivalent is in their languages?

I can't think of any equivalent fixed expression in French, but surely we could say "arrête ton mélodrame" or something like that. It's quite possible that the English phrase has been borrowed here as well, though.

 

[Agrippa]

How would you say in Latin "Don't be such a drama queen"? Not thinking of anyone in particular!!

Cic. Planc. 95: arcem facere e cloaca i. e. to make a mountain of a mole-hill (cf. Lewis&Short s. v. arx):

Cave arcem facias e cloaca!

Ov. epistulae ex Ponto 2.5.22 (cf. Lewis&Short s.v. rivus): e rivo flumina magna facere:

Noli e rivo facere flumina magna!

 

[Bestiola]

There is "tragoedias in nugis agere" with the similar meaning, again Cicero, De oratore, II, 51.

Also "magno conatu magnas nugas dicere"; Terentius,

And Quintilian's (Institutiones, 6., 1 36) "In parvis litibus tragoedias movere tale est, quasi si personam Herculis et cothurnos aptare infantibus velis" etc

Taken from Erasmus' Adagia 1791:

Tragoedias in nugis agere

ihrim.huma-num.fr

Tragoedias in nugis agit qui in re levicula tumultum movet et ut ait Terentius, magno conatu magnas nugas dicit. M. Tullius De oratore, libro secundo : Ne aut irrisione aut odio digni putemur, si tragoedias agamus in nugis. Usurpat idem Fabius libro sexto, capite de peroratione. Nam in parvis, inquit, litibus has tragoedias movere tale est, quasi si personam Herculis et cothurnos aptare infantibus velis. Quin hoc ipsum excitare tragoediam, si alio quopiam deflectatur, proverbium resipit. Unde et Graecis ἐκτραγῳδίζειν, et τραγικῶς λέγειν pro graviter sive acerbe.