# To meet s.o. (to first become acquainted with)



## Stoggler

To meet seems to be one of those verbs that can cause problems when translating into a number of languages, and Latin especially seems to be the case.  What is the best way of expressing something like “I first met him/her/them five years ago)?


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## Sobakus

Indeed, I think the problem is disentangling the notions of "enountering, falling in with", "having a formal introduction" and "becoming acquainted with" simultaneously contained in the English word, as well as determining the intended degree of acquaintance.


If you want to express first learning who someone is, or becoming formally introduced to them, but without necessarily forming a relationship (the last two meanings), that would be _aliquem *cognōsse*_, or the periphrastic and somewhat more vague _ille mihi *nōtus factus* est._
The former one however is too distinct in Latin to be piled together with the other two, but will instead be expressed with expressions like _ille mihi *obviam factus* est, *occurrit*_ (but this doesn't imply lack of prior acquaintance, often the opposite);_ ego in illum *incidī*, illum *offendī, nactus sum*_ ('to hit upon, fall in by chance, luck' respectively).
There are also different expressions for different degrees of acquaintaince, such as *in nōtitiam*_ illīus *vēnī*_ (general acquaintance),_* cōnsuētūdinem/familiāritātem* cum illō *jūnxī*_ (close/very close acquaintance)_._

So in your example sentence it could be any one of these depending on what you want to say. And then of course there's the meaning "to go meet someone", which is expressed in yet other ways.


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## Scholiast

saluete amici omnes!

After musing over his question for some minutes, I sympathize with Stoggler's perplexity. The difficulty lies in the idiomatic nature of the English phrase 'I met him first...': this is wholly clear to you and me, but it is something few Romans would have occasion to say, because in classical times they were either (a) villagers who would know anyone in their immediate social environment anyway; or (b) members of a relatively intimate élite, intertwined commercially and socially and intermarried, who likewise moved in numerically restricted social circles.

And (not to quarrel with Sobakus' answer), it would be also possible to say _eum cognosse _(_abhinc quinque annis_)_ incepi_.

Was there any particular context for this?

Σ


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## Stoggler

Scholiast said:


> Was there any particular context for this?


Thanks for the responses.

The context is that I'm trying to explain when I first met Mrs Stoggler, for a composition exercise we've been asked to do in a Latin lesson.


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## Scholiast

@Stoggler

_Chapeau_, Sir, first for taking Latin classes, at, clearly, an age of discretion; but more importantly for having met and successfully courted Mrs Stoggler. In the circumstances, _eam cognosse abhinc _[xyz] _annis incepi_ would make perfect sense. Were she with me right now, Mrs Scholiast (also a Latinist) would share my sentiments.

Σ


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## Sobakus

Seeing as _cognōsse_ is a resultative perfect, I think it should rather be _eam *cognōvī* abhinc annōs/īs* aliquot._ That said, I think it would be quite possible to say _*cognōscere coepī*_ to express the start of a relationship, with the other change due to the rarity (folksy or archaic flavour) of _incēpisse_ as a perfect. Compare _amāre coepisse_ "to have fallen in love", _amāre incipere_ "to start falling in love".

Apart from that, _cōnsuētūdinem cum illā jūnxī_ or _nōs in cōnsuētūdinem vēnimus _also seem to be fitting expressions in this case, since they refer to establishing a reasonably regular relationship. Come to think of it, the _cognō-_ option too looks better with the reciprocal plural (*inter nōs*_..._), since that verb is also widely used in the sense of cognitively exploring a passive object as well as of recognising someone/something.

* turns out both the accusative and the ablative are possible with _abhinc_​


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## Stoggler

Thank you both.  Rather more options than I was expecting!  




Scholiast said:


> @Stoggler
> 
> _Chapeau_, Sir, first for taking Latin classes, at, clearly an age of discretion; but more importantly for having met and successfully courted Mrs Stoggler. In the circumstances, _eam cognosse abhinc _[xyz] _annis incepi_ would make perfect sense. Were she with me right now, Mrs Scholiast (also a Latinist) would share my sentiments.
> 
> Σ



Thanks Scholiast.  Enjoying the course, almost an academic year’s learning, keen to continue next year.


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