# The price of knowledge is to spread it



## Pan-Eslavo Brasil

Salve, amici! Ut valetis?

I'd want to ask you which do you think is the best translation for the sentence "The price of knowledge is to spread it" (in Portuguese, "O preço pelo conhecimento é transmiti-lo"). I've thought on "_*Scientiae pretium diffusio eius est*_", in one of the possible word orders. Would you have other suggestions? For instance, "_*Diffundere scientiam est eius pretium*_", or "_propago/propagatio_" instead "_diffundo/diffusio_"?

Gratias vobis ago!!!


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## Snodv

Salve Pan-Eslavo! (BTW, your "hello" to us should be plural _salvete)
Diffundere_ and _propagare_ seem to have nearly identical extended meanings, but I personally prefer _propagare_ (with its noun _propagatio_) for its connection to planting and growing.  *Pretium scientiae est propagatio [eius].  *Others, of course, may have different  ideas, and even more compelling reasons for them.


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## Pan-Eslavo Brasil

Thank you very much! Only today I was able to read your answer, hehehe. Yes, you're right, _salvete _is plural... I'm lacking practice, so many years without using Latin 🙈


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## Mary49

Hi,
I don't understand "ut valetis" in interrogative form. Isn't it a final clause? "...ut valeatis".


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## Sobakus

Mary49 said:


> Hi,
> I don't understand "ut valetis" in interrogative form. Isn't it a final clause? "...ut valeatis".


The basic meaning of *ut* is "how/like", consequently *ut valētis?* = "how are you all?"


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## bearded

Sobakus said:


> *ut valētis?* = "how are you all?"


Can you quote Latin examples of the use of an interrogative ''ut''? Apparently, it wasn't that common - instead of ''quomodo''.
''Valeo'' usually means ''I'm well/I'm in good health'' , therefore (in my view) a sensible question would perhaps be _An valetis? = _Are you (all) well?


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## Sobakus

bearded said:


> Can you quote Latin examples of the use of an interrogative ''ut''? Apparently, it wasn't that common - instead of ''quomodo''.
> ''Valeo'' usually means ''I'm well/I'm in good health'' , therefore (in my view) a sensible question would perhaps be _An valetis? = _Are you (all) well?


PHI is the corpus of choice for this kind of queries. *ut valēs?* is not really about choosing to be sensible any more than "how are you?" in English, it's the default greeting formula in its corresponding language. *quōmodo valēs?* does pop up here and there in Late/Medieval Latin (search for "quomodo vales" with quotes), but as far as I can tell it wasn't idiomatic in classical and would be interpreted as "in what way are you well?", "how is it possible? you can't be well!". *an* introduces the alternative answer, so *an valēs?* is something like a surprised "so you're well, are you/or what?" (Russian что ли) when it doesn't mean "or are you well?".

I must say that although this is not the first time I see people taken by surprise by such a fundamental Latin word/expression (the first time was on an epigraphy researcher's blog), and although I'm perfectly aware of the reasons why (the almost total absence of conversational or oral instruction in most recent curricula), this still strikes me as something quite unique in foreign languages. Please don't take this as me being mean


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## Scholiast

saluete amici!

Unsurprisingly, the _OLD_ entry for _ut_ is vast, running to eleven (finely printed) columns, in five principal sections, and 44 sub-sections, amounting to about 33 column-cm in all. Noting that the passages Sobakus cites (in # 7) from _PHI_ are mostly from Plautus and Terence, I would add that _OLD_ (under *A *§ 1) has—for this sense of the word and usage—references to (among others) Cicero (_Cluent._ and _ad Att._), Livy, Tibullus, Propertius and Horace.
That's good enough for me!

Σ


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## bearded

OK, I surrender.


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## Ali Smith

How can _ut valēs_ mean "How are you?"? I mean, _valēs_ means "you are fine", doesn't it?


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## Sobakus

Ali Smith said:


> How can _ut valēs_ mean "How are you?"? I mean, _valēs_ means "you are fine", doesn't it?


It means that when used on its own without an adverb, but in verb phrases with _bene, male, satis, mediocriter, sīc_ the adverb expresses the degree of health. _ut_ is the interrogative word for that adverb.


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