Inclinare non frangere

[tsedek]

I am sorry to bother this forum with a very selfish question. But... (there always is a but) I have been trying for years to find out what the above mentioned phrase means. It is a family "slogan" dating back until the 15th century.

Can anyone please help me?

 

[malleolus]

I'd suggest
(to) bow , (but) not (to) break

 

[tsedek]

Thank you. I found out via the Internet it had to do with bowing and bending but in what context? I think your suggestion would fit well.

 

[Kosmokrator]

I wrote this out of it:

flecti potest, cogi autem non potest virtus; inclinari, non frangi.

Chalybs autem etsi in fornace demersus liquescit ac potest procudi, tamen frangi nequit: inclinatur enim cum procuditur, non frangitur.

 

[tsedek]

Ohhh I must shamefully admit that, even though I studied Latin in college, I don't understand the whole sentence Could you please help here?

 

[socratidion]

You would get better sense if you take inclinare and frangere as passive imperatives: 'be bent, don't be broken', i.e. 'bend, don't break' in the intransitive sense. If you take it as infinitives, it's transitive: 'to bend <things>, not to break <them>'. (Hence Kosmokrator's rewrite makes the infinitives passive: 'to be bent, not to be broken')

 

[tsedek]

So, if I may conclude, it will always stay 'guesswork'? I mean the context. The passive imperatives and the intransitive sense, its infinitives... The exact meaning of the phrase may perhaps never be known (only to those who decided it to be our family slogan in the 15th century) ?

 

[malleolus]

I shouldn't think so although a little context would definitely help. Is this motto part of a coat of arms , an inscription somewhere .... ?

 

[Kosmokrator]

maybe referred to those who have power

inclinare animos non frangere (but i'd expect flectere here)

just like divide et impera or something like that

or else

inclineris ad meliora sperandum neque frangaris adversitatibus

inclineris ad spem neque animo frangaris (si quid secus ac velles accidit)

flectar non autem frangar (si quid secus ac velim accidit)

 

[tsedek]

It has come up when exploring my family-tree. Around 1497 my family decided to make it (in dutch) my family "devies". It has been around for a few centuries. However, I never knew about it until I started digging.

 

[socratidion]

People often say things that are, technically, ambiguous. Context is what saves us: we already have an idea of the sort of thing that someone is likely to be saying, because we share the same culture, the same assumptions, the same expectations.

I take this motto as an allusion (cultural context) to the famous fable of the oak and the reed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oak_and_the_Reed -- a proverbial example of adaptability, flexibility.
I think it is less likely to be a statement that the family likes to bend other people rather than break them.

 

[Kosmokrator]

omne ignotum pro magnifico habetur

maybe it's just nothing ...

 

[Pacifica]

I'm sure it does refer to the well-known oak-and-reed metaphor, but that it was somewhat mistaken, as it should definitely have been in the passive.

 

[socratidion]

But it is in the passive...

 

[Pacifica]

Ooops right, passive imperatives. I thought they were active infinitives.

 

[Imber Ranae]

I'm sure it does refer to the well-known oak-and-reed metaphor, but that it was somewhat mistaken, as it should definitely have been in the passive.

Socratidion believes they're actually passive imperatives, not active infinitives. Passive imperatives of transitive verbs (as opposed to passive-form imperatives of deponent verbs) are pretty damn rare in Latin, but I think they're permitted when the sense is middle. So he could be right.

 

[Pacifica]

So he could be right.

I think he is, really. It doesn't make sense otherwise. Me stultam.

 

[Aurifex]

It may be that the verbs inclinare and frangere here are indeed passive imperatives and that the motto as it stands is self-sufficient. Alternatively there may have been an ellipse in the minds of the motto's originators, as others seem to have suggested. In this case, if we can accept that inclinare here is transitive, the motto could be an abbreviation of something as simple as [nos] inclinare non frangere [potes].
There is a variant of inclinare non frangere on a coat of arms here:
http://armorial.library.utoronto.ca/stamp-owners/EGE002
From the motto on the second coat of arms that is pictured you can see just how elliptical such things can get.

 

[Pacifica]

What is sic donec supposed to mean? (Let it be/it will be) so until (what?)

 

[Imber Ranae]

Maybe: "Thus [it will be] until [judgement day comes.]"