Elizabeth Day, writing in the Telegraph of August 29:
'Believe me, father, the Latin for hot pants is brevissimae bracae' As the iuvenis voluptarius might say, put on your brevissimae bracae femineae and let's go to the taberna nocturna and drink some vinum rubrum Burdigalense. The Vatican has helpfully produced a new lexicon of modern words in Latin, providing translations for such non-classical terms as playboy, hot pants, nightclub and Merlot. The lexicon, which has just been launched, is intended to provide updated vocabulary for theologians writing in Latin about current issues.
For those wishing to write about anarchy or dissent in the 21st century, entries include tromocrates (terrorist) and punkianae catervae assecla (punk).
Theologians referring to the modern vices have an array of new vocabulary at their disposal, including acre vinum Aemilianum (Lambrusco wine) and fistula nicotiana (cigarette). There is a decidedly Italian emphasis on food and drink, with translations for pizza (placenta compressa), ciabatta bread (domestica crepida) and tortellino (pastillus tortilis).
Although British classicists yesterday dismissed the updated translations as "naff" and "subjective", the authors of the lexicon insist that they are promoting the use of Latin "for the entire world".
Cletus Pavanetto, the president of the Latinitas Foundation which produced the dictionary, said: "There are lots of words that Classical Latin could not possibly know the meaning of, like drugs or words relating to current affairs.
"We devise new words by going back to their origins and etymology so that people who use Latin can write about the modern world. It is for theologians who wish to make their writing more relevant to modern issues, but it is also for any Latin enthusiast who wishes to make himself better understood."
The Latinitas Foundation is an academic institution founded in 1976 by Pope Paul VI with the intention of preserving and evolving the Latin language. It publishes a quarterly review in Latin and a Latin dictionary that runs to 780 pages.
Its existence reflects the crucial role that Latin plays in the Vatican, where all official documents are drawn up in the language.
Conversational Latin is also prevalent. At annual synods in Rome, it is the dominant language along with English for prelates' discussions.
Peter Jones, the founder of Friends of Classics, a society that promotes the study of ancient languages in schools, said that there was a long history of inventing new Latin words.
"Latin has always been used as the language of science, so when a new genus or flower is discovered then a new Latin word will be invented to label it," he said. "So there is a noble history of doing this sort of thing and if the Vatican wishes to continue to produce theology that everyone can understand, then they are going to have to deal with the modern world. Latin is perfect for this sort of updating because the roots are universal: everyone understands them.
"It is a little naff and de trop and of course it is not Classical Latin, but there's no reason at all why Latin should not continue to develop in a way that any language does."
Geoffrey Fallows, the president of the Joint Association of Classical Teachers, insisted, however, that the Vatican's "trendy Latin" was merely "a curiosity".
He said:"The whole point of Latin for people like me is to have access to and appreciation of ancient and medieval literature. This kind of 'modernisation' is a side-show as far as people in mainstream education are concerned.
"The problem with this is that it's very subjective. You or I could go away and produce our own Latin words for 'atom bomb' or 'motorway' and we could end up with entirely different results."
Mr Fallows acknowledged, however, that the Vatican translation for hot pants was particularly admirable.
"Bracae is a good classical word for trousers and brevissimae means very short," he said. "I'd have to agree with them on that one."
It is a pseudo-swearword created for use by the actors in the British TV series Porridge. http://www.porridge.org.uk/
Porridge is a slang term for a jail term and the series was set in a prison. Since male prisoners are not known for their gentle language and since at that time (around 30 years ago) real swearwords were too dangerous for the sensitive Beeb, the word "naff" was coined.
Choose any swearword you wish as a translation, although the word seems to have acquired the meaning of "poor" or "useless" these days.
Americans would say "it sucks" for what we would refer to as "really naff"
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
that particular expression has gained little currency here - at least among the older generation.
That's naff; er, I mean: that sucks.
BTW, Partridge, in his excellent Dictionary of Slang and Unconvential English has this to say about naf(f):
"The female pudend : ? back slang on fan, abbreviation for fanny, q.v.; from ca. 1845. If not obscure dialect of independent origin—ex or cognate with naf(f), the navel (–1866), or with naf(f), the hub of a wheel (–1796), EDD—then this is perhaps the earliest of back-slang terms. Halliwell."
I was going to post about my distaste for the American expression "it sucks"; in particular for the way I see it used in TV programmes aimed at children, with no thought for its origins.
Then I read jheem's post citing Partridge on "naff"!
I'd guess that another reason for the popularity of "naff" over here is that Princess Anne once famously told photographers to "naff off" as they snapped her taking a ducking from her mount at the Badminton Horse Trials.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Ah, but with all due respect to Partridge, my source indicates that the meaning he notes is applicable only to naf, not to naff. My hard copy of AHD has this explanation, which does not appear in AHD on-line. Of course, the language preceding the first comma is such utter nonsense as to make obvious that the author, smiling, was writing with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
In the dual tradition of looking to one's betters for models of how to use language and the American obeisance to British usage, let us look at two British words spelled naff. One is an adjective, meaning "clichéd, unstylish" (first recorded in 1969), that may be derived from dialectal words such as naffhead, "simpleton," or niffy-naffy, "stupid." The other naff is a verb, usually used in the imperative in combination with off (first recorded in 1959). This is the delicate injunction that members of the royal family such as Princess Anne have used in requesting members of the press to beat it. The origin of naff is unknown, but it has been suggested that naff may be related to an older English slang term naf, meaning "the female sexual organ." Naf has been derived from a backward spelling of fan, from fanny.
