Ever Better

The young woman who checked out my purchases at Agway earlier this afternoon was wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt with the seal of the University of Rochester, whose one-word motto is MELIORA. One of my favorite English derivatives from a Latin word, ameliorate, comes from this Latin word, meliora, which means better things or, as the university translates, ever better. When you ameliorate something, you make it better in some way. Earlier I had written about the motto of Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT: moniti meliora sequamur (having been warned, let us follow better things).

Good, Better, Best

My students are usually amused when I recite the following rhyme about a positive-comparative-superlative adjective in English:

Good, better, best

Never let it rest

'Til the good is better

And the better best.

My Latin 2 class is memorizing tonight five irregularly compared adjectives, and I think English derivatives are most helpful in learning the Latin words. But I also like mottoes that contain the irregular forms. The motto of Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut is Monitī meliora sequāmur, a quotation from Book 3 of Vergil's Aeneid, rendered by me literally as having been warned/advised, let us follow better things. You may already know that meliora is the Latin word meaning better things, because we've mentioned the English word ameliorate, to improve, make better, elsewhere. But did you know that meliorate, meliorable, meliorative, and meliorism are also English words? Meliorism, according to my dictionary, is the belief that the world naturally tends to get better--what a happy thought!