# Above all, love



## stephenm711

I'm trying to translate a phrase to Latin and I feel like google is not giving me the correct translation. The phrase I would like to translate is "Above all, love" or "Above all things, love" and for context purposes, I want it to represent a shorter version of the bible verse "Above all things, put on love" but I would like it to be around 3 words because I plan on making it a tattoo. Google tells me it's "supra omnes amo", is this correct? If not, then what is?


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## bearded

Hello and welcome to this forum!
Google is unreliable - the phrase should read _super omnia amor._
Other members might have even better suggestions, though.
_
_


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## Scholiast

Greetings, & as bearded has cautioned, Google must not be used for translating into Latin.

My own feeling is that _ante omnia_, _amor_ ('Before all, love') is more idiomatic. Alternatively, there is the famous poetic tag _amor omnia vincit_, 'Love conquers all'.

Σ


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## stephenm711

bearded said:


> Hello and welcome to this forum!
> Google is unreliable - the phrase should read _super omnia amor._
> Other members might have even better suggestions, though.


thanks i feel very welcome! and that's perfect, thank you so much! Just can't trust google these days haha


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## stephenm711

Scholiast said:


> Greetings, & as bearded has cautioned, Google must not be used for translating into Latin.
> 
> My own feeling is that _ante omnia_, _amor_ ('Before all, love') is more idiomatic. Alternatively, there is the famous poetic tag _amor omnia vincit_, 'Love conquers all'.
> 
> Σ



That's a great alternative, ante omnia, amor. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! Would the comma have to be included for it to mean that or can it be removed without changing the meaning? And I've heard of amor omnia vincit, and I like the phrase a lot and it has a beautiful meaning, but I'm not sure if I'd want a tattoo of it because the word conquer comes off as too aggressive in my taste, it gives the phrase almost a dark sense of beauty, rather than a light one. What do you think??


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## Scholiast

Greetings once more



stephenm711 said:


> Would the comma have to be included



No. Especially (for a tattoo) if you have it done in upper-case TIMES ROMAN style font, to resemble a Roman inscription.

Σ


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## stephenm711

Scholiast said:


> Greetings once more
> 
> 
> 
> No. Especially (for a tattoo) if you have it done in upper-case TIMES ROMAN style font, to resemble a Roman inscription.
> 
> Σ



Would the order of the words change the meaning? For example, does _amor ante omnia_ mean about the same thing as _ante omnia amor ?? _thank you again for your replies !


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## Scholiast

stephenm711 said:


> Would the order of the words change the meaning? For example, does _amor ante omnia_ mean about the same thing as _ante omnia amor ?_



It would not change the meaning. But it would weaken the rhetorical and epigrammatic force, as Latin likes to keep the most important word 'in reserve' to the end of a sentence or phrase.

Σ


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## stephenm711

Scholiast said:


> It would not change the meaning. But it would weaken the rhetorical and epigrammatic force, as Latin likes to keep the most important word 'in reserve' to the end of a sentence or phrase.
> 
> Σ



ah okay I see! So _ante omnia amor_ would be the best option in terms of representing the bible verse "and above all things, put on love etc etc" in three words. It's perfect actually, I love it a lot and will probably go through with it as the tattoo in due time. Thank you so much for your help, if it weren't for you, I may have made the huge (and permanent) mistake of just going with the translation google gave me! I'm glad I posted here haha have a wonderful day!


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