# Intelligence at work



## vanheusen

Hi everyone
Does anyone know the translation into Latin of the phrase:
*
Intelligence at work*

Thank you


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## Cagey

I understand this on the model of "Men at work."  If that is what you mean, I suggest either of the following:
_hic mens laborat._  = Here a mind is working.
_mens laborat hic_. = A mind is working here.​ Latin does not have a direct translation for "at work",  so I have substituted the finite verb (_is working_).  I added 'here' (_hic_) because I think that better gives the sense of a slogan like "Men at work."  You can omit it if you disagree. 

If I have misunderstood your intended meaning, please explain more fully what you have in mind.


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## vanheusen

Intelligence at work
Has two meanings.
the first one is what you translated, but the second one is the information gathered being put to work.
Having said this, I dont know if there's a Latin phrase that can grasp both meanings?


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## Cagey

vanheusen said:


> Intelligence at work
> Has two meanings.
> the first one is what you translated, but the second one is the information gathered being put to work.
> Having said this, I dont know if there's a Latin phrase that can grasp both meanings?


_Intellegentia_ has the same ambiguity that intelligence has. It also has the advantage that people who don't know Latin will immediately understand it. In fact, the whole saying will be relatively transparent. So:
_hic __intellegentia__ laborat._  = Here intelligence is working.
_Intellegentia __laborat hic_. = Intelligence is working here.​


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## brian

I understand _intelligence at work_ much like I would understand, for example, _your tax dollars at work_, something you might sarcastically say while driving over potholes.

Not that I consider _intelligence at work_ sarcastic, but my point is that there is a difference between _your tax dollars at work_ and _men at work_, and I'm not entirely sure whether these are the two meanings vanheusen discussed above.

I think it would really help to have some _context_ for this question. Where is it going to appear? What is it going to describe? etc.


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## relativamente

When translating into Latin we cannot forget that the roman people had different ways of thinking and considering the world than we have nowadays.Some concepts were strange to them.For example they  did not had many machines and devices so the concept of function was more restricted and they used the verb fungor mostly to jobs.laboro and operor I think they were used usually with a person subject.
Anyway if we write in Latin we still can try to put our own ways of thinking into Latin, but we should be conscious that maybe we are creating expressions that are not really typically Latin.But no ancient roman person is ever going to tell us what he or she thinks of our efforts.
I think this can apply to this expression about "inteligence at work".


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## vanheusen

It has two meanings
using intelligence info to finish work.
And doing the work intelligently


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## Cagey

vanheusen said:


> Intelligence at work
> Has two meanings.
> the first one is what you translated, but the second one is the information gathered being put to work.
> Having said this, I dont know if there's a Latin phrase that can grasp both meanings?


I think the answer is "no, there isn't".  At least, I can't think of one.  

'Intelligence' in the sense of current information would be _nuntius_ (news).

We have discussed two Latin words for _intelligence_ meaning 'intellect':  _mens, intellegentia_.  A third possibility is _ingenium_, which refers to natural ability, cleverness, genius.

I know of no Latin word that has the double meaning of English 'intelligence'.


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