# Et tu, Brute



## kazzapic

can anyone please tell me what:- et tu brutil means?


----------



## Aeneas

Where did you hear this?  I'm assuming you mean 'et tu, Brute?'.  This is what Caesar said just before his assassination upon realizing that his close friend, Brutus, had a part in planning the murder.  It is generally used when a person feels betrayed by someone they thought they could trust.


----------



## walnut

Hi Kazzapic and welcome to the WR Forums 

As the involved language is probably latin, I'm moving this thread to the Other Languages Forum.

Walnut


----------



## walnut

I thought exactly the same as Aeneas, but then remembered that - if I'm not mistaken - Caesar's exclamation was "Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi" (You too, Brutus, my son). 

Kazzapic's sentence is possibly a variation on the same theme... Could you provide some context?

 Walnut


----------



## Outsider

Are you sure it's not _"Et tu, *Brutus*"_?


----------



## Cathurian

No, it's Brute -- pronounced Broo-tay -- because Latin changes the endings of nouns depending on whether they're the subject, object, etc.

"Brute" is vocative case...used when talking to someone by name.


----------



## mateo19

Actually, I heard that Caesar's last word's were the same, "And you, Brutus?" but that he actually said them in Greek, not in Latin.  "Kai su, Brute?"  I don't know why Caesar would have spoken Greek, but I read that in several historical books.


If I'm allowed to, I'll quote Wikipedia:

The dictator's last words are, unfortunately, not known with certainty, and are a contested subject among scholars and historians alike. In Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar,_ Caesar's last words are given as "_Et tu, Brute?_ Then fall, Caesar." ("You too, Brutus? Then fall, Caesar."). However, this is Shakespeare's invention. Suetonius reports his last words, spoken in Greek, as "_καί σύ τέκνον_"[44] (transliterated as "_Kai su, teknon?_"; "You too, my child?" in English).[45] Plutarch reports that Caesar said nothing, pulling his toga over his head when he saw Brutus among the conspirators.[46]


----------



## virgilio

Cathurian,
              Re your:"No, it's Brute -- pronounced Broo-tay -"
Actually that "tay" should be "te" the "e" clipped very short, as the modern Italians also do.
Otherwise the man will never enjoy the pulsating rhythms of Latin verse!

Virgilio


----------

