JoshuaZ comments on REQ: Latin translation for HPMOR - Less Wrong

13 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 22 August 2011 10:20AM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 22 August 2011 03:12:18PM *  5 points [-]

quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur?

Nitpick: "quidquid" meaning whatever is one word not two words. While ancient Latin didn't have spacing between words, we can see that in this sort of context it was intended as a single word because Latin allows a lot of word order rearrangement and "quidquid" didn't get split up (as I understand that). "Quid" means "what" but "quidquid" means "whatever" or "anything".

And there's a disclaimer necessary here that I haven't taken Latin in a decade so I could be wrong but I don't think I am.

Comment author: Cerberus 03 September 2011 02:22:19PM 1 point [-]

I think I agree that quidquid cannot normally be split up; but is that reason enough to say it must be one word? The particle -que cannot normally be split up either, but it is split up occasionally in poetry, if I remember correctly. I think what constitutes a word and what doesn't is ultimately an unreclaimable quagmire, though in this case I'd certainly prefer quidquid over quid quid too.

Comment author: Emile 22 August 2011 03:41:29PM 1 point [-]

Interesting, I guess the French "quoique" and "quelque" ("whatever" and "some") are descendents of this formulation ("quoi", "que", and "quel" are also words of their own).

Comment author: ahel 10 March 2012 01:53:45PM 0 points [-]

He's right, as far as I studied.