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- "Mustelam nostram tibi tradim…
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Can't vizualize any scene where such dialogue might take place. Wait, is there a Monty Python in Latin?
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I have a theory that one of the course developers is a fan of "Wind in the Willows" in which the villains are weasels (& ferrets & stoats) who live in the Wild Wood, under the protection of the great god Pan. Here is their song (performed by many Monty Python-ers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_TbgMUx9OA . ;>) According to another Duolinguist, it is a reference to Pliny the Elder, who wrote about weasels.
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if you're a weasel, try not to be handed over to Pliny: it's not going to end well...
Historia Naturalis - mostly Book VIII.
Ovid was also into weasels, though at least he didn't use them in Traditional Roman Medicine...
Metamorphoses - Book IX.
Every time I hear "Clever Weasel" I think of the 1980's stop motion Thames production tv series of the wind in the willows, which concistes almost entirely of the chief weasel hatching various plots to rob mr toad. I agree the some of the latin devolopers must be fans of thoes stories.
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OK. I can't resist this. Q. How do you tell the difference between a stoat and a weasel. A. A weasel is weasily distinguishable because a stoat is stotally different.
Stoat is the "Mustela erminea" by the way. In French, we call it "hermine" (old French "ermine") it gave, of course, the "ermine skin", used to make royal fur coats.
They say on Wikipedia that it's called "mus Ponticus" in "Latinitate communi" langage or "sive erminea".
So "mus ponticus" =mouse of from the Pont-Euxin, thus something like "Turkish mouse", they probably didn't make any difference between mouse and stoats/weasels.
"Sive" looks like civet/civette, but they don't seem to be related. I don't rind the meaning of "sive" in Latin in this context.
A weasel is not the name of an animal, but the name of a family: the mustelidae. There are several weasels.
The Roman weasel could be the stoat (same family), or the Mustela altaica, or another one...
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"sive" is not the name of an animal; it only means "or" in Latin. Thus the sentence can be translated to "mus ponticus... or erminea". By the way, the ermine is the national emblem of Britanny, like the eagle in Germany or the rooster in France.
It's a conversational Latin course, of course. This sort of thing must happen in some countries.
And also an undisclosed amount of cash, plus a minor league parrot to be named later.
Is it too much of a stretch to say "We turn our weasel over to you."? I gave it the old college try and it was rejected so I reported it as "My answer should be accepted" but I wonder if it should.
The weasel is a family heirloom. It will outlive all of us. It is your responsibility now, son
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I like to think of the old nursery rhyme "Pop! goes the weasel" when I see tradimus and mustela in the same sentence. One interpretation is this. Cockney rhyming slang "weasel and stoat" = "coat", and to pop something is to pawn it. So maybe we are putting our coat in pawn to fund the weekend's foray to the local caupona?
Okay, I could figure this out by myself probably, but I'm going to ask you guys so you can get a laugh out of it too. How would you say, "We hand you over to our weasel?"
Hmmm, mustelae nostrae looks like nominative plural, but I see it's also dative singular. So you must be right, thanks! Latin certainly is not an easy language.
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You are right! It can be nominative plural or dative singular and you can tell it only when you have it in a sentence. My tip: always try to find a verb first. Here we have 'tradimus' so the subject is 'nos' (we). If you want, now try to translate this sentence: Mustelae nostrae nobis te tradunt. :)
Mustelae nostrae, with "Mustelae nostrae" as a subject, would be:
Mustelae nostrae te tradunt.
(Our weasels hand you over, I think, in English).
So the verb indicates conjugation indicates the subject here.
Why does it refuse to accept the much-more-fluent "We hand our weasel to you"?
...and why hasn't anyone answered this question? It's been asked four times in here!
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Why not replace "hand over" with "give"? We give our weasel to you. Would make sense, I gave my pet animal to my sister.
I'm curious about "tradimus" , does it mean simply "hand over and get nothing in return" or can it also mean "exchange" like the English word "trade"?
