Loxias

 

Words & derivations

Rude Latin

 

The first set are all from one scene in Plautus' Pseudolus (I.3.127ff), where Pseudolus and the pimp Ballio are seriously trading insults! It ends up with Pseudolus saying:

 

"verberavisti patrem et matrem …" [You beat up your mum and dad …]

Ballio: "et occidi quoque potius quam cibum praehiberem." [Actually I killed them rather than waste money on their keep]

 

 

impudice

loose

sceleste

evil

verbero

need a good beating

bustirape

tomb robber

sociofraude

backstabber

furcifer

gallows meat

sacrilege

blasphemer

periure

liar

legerupa

crook

permities adulescentum

child molester

fur

thief

fugitive

runaway

fraus populi

fraudster

fraudulente

cheat

leno

pimp

caenum

scum

 

In Persa (III.3.1ff) there's a completely different set:

 

lutum lenonium

filthy pimp

sterculinum publicum

rubbish dump

impure

rude

inhoneste

nasty

iniure

wrong

inlex

lawless

labes populi

stain on the public

pecuniae accipiter avide

greedy money-hawk

procax

wanton

rapax

grasping

trahax

sticky-fingered

impudens

shameless

 

From Plautus' other plays we can add the following (Plautus was apparently never "lost for words"):

 

stabulum servitricium

scortorum liberator

suduculum flagri

compedium tritor

pistrinorum civitas

perenniserve

lurcho

edax

furax

fugax

inanilogista

pultifagus

pernonida (=ham-let?)

mastigia

hircus

hara suis

carnuficium cribrum

virgarum lascivia

 

Please send me your suggestions for suitable translations of the last set - or any improvements on the first two.

The possibilities for being nice were far fewer!

 

vita

my life

anima, animule

my soul

voluptas

my delight

ocelle

my eye

rosa

my rose

mel /melculum

my (wee) honey

cor / corculum

my (little) heart

bellula

my little beauty

verculum

my little springtime

 

And finally, ways of expressing yourself without needing to know any words!

 

haha / hahahae

(funny)

fu / vae

(disgusting)

ei / heu / papae

(sad)

attat / attatae/

(amazing)

ehem /hem / hui

(embarrassing)

eu / euge / eugepae

(great!)

pax / st

(sh!!)

eho / heus

(hey!)

babae / bombax

(wow!)

heia

(aha!)

 

For a rude interpretation of one of Kennedy's innocent-seeming gender rhymes,

visit this page: