# Good resource for Latin Idiomatic Uses?



## Filius Regis

Is there a good professional resource concerning Latin idiomatic uses, preferrably one easy to use? I checked the other thread about resources ( Latin Resources Suggestions ), but it does not seem to have what I seek.


Thanks.


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## Cagey

If you are interested in Classical Latin, I suggest that you use  Lewis & Short, A Latin Dictionary (Perseus Digital ... - Tufts University
The entry for each word includes examples of its use taken from classical authors. Since the principal use for Classical Latin is to read classical authors. These examples include common idioms in which the word appears. I don't know anyone who has compiled a list of idioms from the point of view of learners who want to speak the language, though there may be one.

People who want to use Latin conversationally have to coin words to talk about things like automobiles, football, and MRI scanning. There are websites devoted to this use of Latin, but I haven't used them, so I can't comment on which ones would be useful. And I don't know whether any of them would offer a list of idioms.


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## Filius Regis

Hi, Cagey.

I know of Lewis & Short and its possible uses, but was rather wondering whether there existed a work with specific focus on idiomatic uses and idiomatic uses alone. By easy to use I mean, by the way, with modern information organisation.

But no worries: I have managed so far.


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## Scholiast

Greetings

When I was studying Latin prose composition at school and then university, Carl Meissner's _Latin Phrase-book_ (first English edition, of London, 1894, and reprinted in about 1980) was a godsend. I wish I still had my copy, but don't have a clue what became of it. But the work is now freely available online from the Gutenberg Project. The material is organised by topic in chapters on e.g. 'The World and Nature', 'Domestic Life', 'War' (a pretty long section as you may imagine, with numerous subdivisions) &c., and if you know what you are looking for it is pretty easy to navigate. Unlike L&S it only occasionally offers specific references to actual authors' works, but I never found that a barrier to its usefulness.

If you read German, there's also the older W. Otto's _Lateinische Sprichwörter_ (of about 1856), which contains a bit more than just proverbial phrases.

Σ

Late edit, for the Moderator(s): in the light of Filius Regis' disappointment (# 1) at not finding what he was looking for in the Latin Resources section, maybe a link to the Gutenberg online edition of Meissner might be worth including?


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## Filius Regis

Hi Scholiast,

Thanks for the suggestions. The first book seems to be a useful one indeed. The second one, whose title seems promising, I cannot find at all. But the first one should be sufficient for now.

For those interested, a link to the first book on Project Gutenberg: Latin Phrase-Book, Meissner.


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## Scholiast

Dear all

Otto's Sprichwörter should send you to Otto's work (revised edn. of 1890). It's a tad clumsy to use online, but perhaps of some use.

τοδ᾽ εὖ νικάτω.

Σ


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## Filius Regis

Ah, I should have known that the German book could be found at archives.org.

This online version of it is indeed clumsy. If I recall correctly (I don't have it in front of me right now), there should be an option to download an offline version (PDF, epub, etc.). I would personally not trust its file quality, though, based on previous experiences with that, but who knows it might work out fine in this case.


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