After my recent piece about grammatical howlers in Collects and other texts issued by the CDW, it has occurred to me that Spot The Latin Howler would be a very acceptable addition to the sections of our newspapers which contain crosswords, chess puzzles, sudokus, etc. etc.. (The Times, incidentally, has a Latin crossword ... I'm sure this sort of delight is also commonplace in North America.)
For those who like this type of puzzle, I think I will offer occasional puzzles with the Spot The Latin Howler format, drawing upon the rich treasure of illiteracies contained in CDW decrees.
So here is the Collect authorised a few years ago for our Lady of Guadalupe. Spot the howler!
Deus, Pater misericordiarum, qui sub sanctissimae Matris Filii tui singulari patrocinio plebem tuam constituisti, tribue cunctis, qui beatam Virginem Guadalupensem invocant, ut, alacri fide, populorum progressionem in viis iustitiae quaereant et pacis.
Remember: it's grammatical howlers you're after, so the 'answer' is not "I object to any allusion to a left-wing encyclical of S Paul VI".
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13 comments:
“Quaerere” is third conjugation, not second.
Assuming it's the Son who is "only" rather than the "patronage", should "singulari" not read "singularis"?
I guess there are to much e in quaereant ...
It should be 'quaerant'?
"Quaereant" is surely a new word. Unless they mean quaero?
Interesting form of quaero, quaerere.
For those of us trying to regain some Latin ( A level 1961) will you vouchsafe the answer with reason?
That would be the non-existent form 'quaereant', I suppose? (Should be 'quaerant'.) But I do also think that blatant piece of advertising for Papa Montini's encyclical (and for the - now defunct - Council 'Justitia et Pax') is a bit out of place here...
*quaereant?
Quaereant is a barbarism, the correct form is quaerant... I'm ashamed to say it took me two close readings of the text to spot it (I was looking for a solecism, along the lines of "matrem fieret" in the newly-minted prayer for Our Lady of Loreto...)
Yes, quaerant of course. Certainly an error. Too kind to call it a typo, because the composer of the prayer probably mistook the conjugation of the verb. But it's too harsh to call it a howler, a term with snobby and precious connotations. Instances of true howlers (from my schoolmastering days) are trying to make a passive out of facere through ignorance of the existence of fieri, or translating the English verb must by Latin mustum, indifferent to the distinction between a verb and a noun!
A howler is a howler is a howler and I have no apprehensions about being snobby. I am infinitely precious.
À propos usage of fieri in composition: https://twitter.com/Pontifex_ln/status/1058992243720118272
I do not think it will be too patronising of your readership if I remind them that good authors never use fio in the plural, though there is a noun fimus, -ī f. (also fimum, -ī n.) with the same meaning as stercus.
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