# Fame Will Serve as a Memento



## Forero

Just for fun, would "fame will serve as a memento" be "fama de memento servet"?

Thread has been branched from here.  — Flam


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## Cagey

Forero said:


> Just for fun, would "fame will serve as a memento" be "fama de memento servet"?



Unfortunately the English noun 'momento' is an imperative verb in Latin (=you shall remember!).  The Latin noun would be _monumentum_ (memorial, monument).  And "will serve as ..." would not be _servare_ (a very false friend in this case) but _erit pro_.

So:
_Fama pro monumento erit._  Fame (reputation) will serve (be) as a monument. ​Or, if you want to be more sententious, perhaps:
_Sit fama [mihi] pro monumento._ 
In translationeze: Let fame be [for me] as a monument.
_Mihi _(to/ for me) is optional.  It means that fame serves you as a monument, not that the monument is to you, (unless others read it differently).​


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## Forero

Thanks, Flam and Cagey.  That makes sense.  Would _servire_ not serve in this case?


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## Cagey

_Servire_ is "to serve" is the sense of" being attendant/ obedient to". It was used to describe what slaves (for instance) did.  

The "serve as" you want here means, I think, "to take the place of/ do the work of".  In Latin this is a completely different idea, and must be expressed differently.  There is more than one way to do this, but none would use _servire_.  

If you want to use _servire_, you could say something like:
I will serve (be a slave to/ servant of) fame. _Famae serviam. _​
However, I don't think you want to do that. _Fama_ can mean "fame, reputation" but it may also mean "rumor". In the above example _Famae_ could be read as "I will be a slave to rumor."  In the original context I think it is clear that _fama_ means "fame, reputation".


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## Forero

In Spanish, for example, "no sirve" (it does not "serve") means something is of no use (in a given capacity).  If _servire_ meant only serving as a servant serves in classical Latin, all these other meanings (Are you being served?, etc.) must be due to the ravages of the centuries.

I would not expect _quietare_ to fit here (like Spanish _quedar_), but could we use _stare_?

_Fama pro monumento stabit_?


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## Cagey

Forero said:


> In Spanish, for example, "no sirve" (it does not "serve") means something is of no use (in a given capacity).  If _servire_ meant only serving as a servant serves in classical Latin, all these other meanings (Are you being served?, etc.) must be due to the ravages of the centuries.
> 
> I would not expect _quietare_ to fit here (like Spanish _quedar_), but could we use _stare_?
> 
> _Fama pro monumento stabit_?



No, I wouldn't use it. 

If you want a verb form rather than a construction with "to be", the only one I can suggest at the moment is _substituere_, a transitive verb which you might use in the passive:  
_Fama substituetur pro monumento._  Fame will be substituted for (put in place of) a monument.​
I am thinking of the conventions of classical Latin.   There may be occasional or eccentric uses of the verbs that are closer to what you have in mind.


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## Forero

Thank you again, Cagey.


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## Cagey

Forero said:


> Thank you again, Cagey.



I was interested see that (in this case) Latin relied on syntax to express a relationship that a modern descendent now expresses through the lexical meanings of verbs.  Thank _you_, Forero


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