# De oppresso liber



## Yukia

Hello, I would like to know what's the exact translation of this sentence, *De oppresso liber*, which is the U.S. Special Forces motto. Does it mean "Freedom for the oppressed", "To free the oppressed" or something else? Thank you.


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## rainbowizard

Hi,
making a syntax analysis of the sentence I'd say:
_liber_ (I male nominative from liber, liberă, liberum) = free (as a condition of being free)
_de oppresso_ (abl from oppressus, a, um past participle of opprĭmo, opprĭmis, oppressi, oppressum, opprĭmĕre) = from (the condition of being) oppressed
So I think that the sense should be: _become free from having been oppressed._

Googling I found also _"__To Liberate the Oppressed"_ but I do not think it is a correct translation because _liber_ is not a verb.


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## Joca

rainbowizard said:


> Hi,
> making a syntax analysis of the sentence I'd say:
> _liber_ (I male nominative from liber, liberă, liberum) = free (as a condition of being free)
> _de oppresso_ (abl from oppressus, a, um past participle of opprĭmo, opprĭmis, oppressi, oppressum, opprĭmĕre) = from (the condition of being) oppressed
> So I think that the sense should be: _become free from having been oppressed._
> 
> Googling I found also _"__To Liberate the Oppressed"_ but I do not think it is a correct translation because *liber is not a verb*.


 
But *libera* (Imperative) is. What if by dropping the final a (ellipsis) you get *liber*?


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## Yukia

Is it possible? I mean, are ellipsis common in latin?


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## rainbowizard

Joca said:


> But *libera* (Imperative) is. What if by dropping the final a (ellipsis) you get *liber*?


 
But what should mean "De oppresso liber*a*"?

It could be _Libera [ab] oppressione_  or _Libera oppresionem_ = Free (people) from oppression
or _Libera oppressus_ (from obpressŭs, obpressūs) ... Free the oppresses

As far as I know _Liberare _cannot be followed by de + ablative


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## Joca

rainbowizard said:


> But what should mean "De oppresso liber*a*"?
> 
> It could be _Libera [ab] oppressione_ or _Libera oppresionem_ = Free (people) from oppression
> or _Libera oppressus_ (from obpressŭs, obpressūs) ... Free the oppresses
> 
> *As far as I know Liberare cannot be followed by de + ablative*


 
You could be right, but I have the impression that this is possible. I am afraid we both need someone to resolve the dispute.


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## Yukia

Thank you very much for your answers.

As far as I see, and as it seems that nobody else is going to come in our aid, I think that, being a motto, it might be inappropriate to write the exact translation. If the meaning is "become free from having been oppressed", I think it's too complicated to write it like that in my text, which is a kind of article, because it doesn't sound like a motto. So I guess I'd better choose the other meaning, "to free the oppressed", which might not be the exact translation but contains the same message. At least, I see that I should not use "freedom for the oppressed".

Anyway, before choosing I wanted to know what you just explained, thanks again.


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## djmc

Liber here would not be a verb, it is an adjective. The meaning of the phrase would be intended to be something like "Free from opression". Oppressus could be supine but may be a noun and mean pressure. It is 4th conjugation and the ablative would be oppressu. It sounds as if the expression was invented by someone who didn't know much Latin.


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## rainbowizard

djmc said:


> Oppressus could be supine but may be a noun and mean pressure. It is 4th conjugation and the ablative would be oppressu.


 
well... _oppressus, a, um_ is past participle of _opprĭmo_ and in the male form it follows the 2nd decl. So _oppresso_ is correct as an ablative.
(Supine is _oppress__um_ not _oppressus)._

_obpressŭs, obpressūs_ is a noun (and means "_pressure_") of the 4th and, you're right, would be _oppressu_ on the ablative.

... note: I realize now that _Libera oppressus_ would not mean Free the oppresses as I said before but "Free the pressures"


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## Bountyman

The translation of De Oppresso Liber means "To Liberate The Oppressed". That's the "mission" of Special Forces. There _is_ no direct translation. It's like when you say "You're Welcome" in Spanish. You can say "De Nada", which means "of nothing", or "por nada", which means "for nothing", or...you can say "no hay de que". Some things don't translate in exact syntax.

SSgt E6 Steve Boone
Detachment A-342 
5th Special Forces Group 
Camp Dong Xoai, 
Phuoc Long Province 
South Vietnam 1965-1968


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## XiaoRoel

La traducción literal en español es "_de oprimido a libre_", "_de preso a libre_". En inglés supongo que sería algo como _from prisoner/oppressed to free_.


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## lawdogpw

De Opresso Liber

Known to those in the Special Forces Community as "Liberators of the Oppressed"... Not a direct translation mind you but that is as close a reference as one can get. 

SSG. P.W.Wimp
7th Group S.F. (Ret.)
Ft. Bragg, N.C.


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## Cagey

XiaoRaul tells us that the Latin would be translated as: 
_from oppressed to free_ with "free" as an adjective.
This can be understood as a promise on the part of the Special Forces that they will change an oppressed person into a free person. 

The English versions are approximate paraphrases of this idea, but quite different in structure.  They make the Special Forces the subject of the motto; the Latin version speaks only of the people they liberate.


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