# Our fangs are many



## Halcenion

"Our fangs are many" is the motto of the Society for Creative Anachronism Household that my friends and I are building. 

The household's sigil is a red wolfhound, so the connotation of this is supposed to be somewhat menacing, the idea being that each warrior of the house is one fang and that we are numerous and deadly in our own right. 

I want to put this motto at the bottom of a custom flag to hang in front of our camp.

I tried to look around online but I was having trouble finding a word that directly translates to "fangs." I am also not very good with syntax/conjugation in Romantic languages as I am very new to Latin.


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## metaphrastes

Not a Latinist, but I will try a shot as an exercice 

_Denticuli nostri complures sunt.
_
The word order might be changed according what you want to emphasize more and good style, too. I will not approach this point in any depth, but my impression is that the initial words will have more impact. Thus, if you begin as above, by _denticuli nostri (our fangs) _the _fangs' _idea will have more impact. On other hand, if you begin by _complures sunt (denticuli nostri) _the idea of multiplicity will be more emphasized.

That being said, I am less sure about the choice of words. _Denticulus _is given by Whitaker's Words as being _a little/small tooth/fang/cog_, among other less interesting meanings. I am not sure if you mean the hollow tooth of a venomous snake or simply the canine tooth of a carnivorous animal - and, in both cases, I am not sure if _denticulus _would be a precise term. Maybe some adjective as _rapax _(grasping, rapacious) added to _dens _(tooth)_ - rapaces dentes, _in plural. But this would not render the meaning related with a snake's venom, probably.

Anyway, this last option would give something as: 
_rapaces dentes nostri complures sunt.
_
Regarding _complures (many) _there are other words that might be in better style or grammar. Let us await for some expert to weigh on these nothing but well-meant suggestions.


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## Casquilho

Vicipaedia refer to the dragon's teeth in the story of Cadmus as _dentes_

Cadmus - Vicipaedia

I tried to find a confirmation in Latin in Diodorus Siculus but was not able to.


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## Casquilho

For the "are many" sentence, the nearest I could find is the story of Legion in the Gospel of Mark (5, 9):

_Et interrogabat eum: “ Quod tibi nomen est? ”. Et dicit ei: “ Legio nomen mihi est, quia multi sumus ”.
_
So maybe _dentes nostri multi sunt_?

Biblical Latin is not the same as Classical Latin, though, and I have a feeling you're looking for the latter.


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## Scholiast

salvete omnes!

Friend Casquilho (# 3) is quite right, _dentes_ is the proper word. Not sure, however about the motto. Why not _dentes habemus_ ("We have teeth"), or _dentibus contendimus_ ("We fight with our teeth"), or _dentibus ungibusque _("With teeth and claws")...? Various other possibilities commend themselves.

Incidentally...


Casquilho said:


> I tried to find a confirmation in Latin in Diodorus Siculus but was not able to



It would have been a little surprising if Casquilho had found any such thing, as Diodoros wrote in Greek.

Σ


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## Casquilho

Scholiast said:


> It would have been a little surprising if Casquilho had found any such thing, as Diodoros wrote in Greek.
> 
> Σ



My bad  I was actually thinking about Hyginus, but for some reason I made a confusion between Hyginus and Diodorus


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