Cool Cash

Canadian currency has become interesting in the past few years. Coins are colorful and commemorative in many ways. This year at Canada Post I found gift sets of coins (lacking pennies for the first time in Canadian history) to acknowledge weddings and births of 2013. At $19.95CDN (+ 15% HST, i.e., harmonized sales tax), these gifts are a pretty solid money-maker, as the combined total of the coins ($2 + $1 + .25. + .10 + .05 = $3.40) plus the expense of the card, plastic sleeve, and envelope surely amounts to far less than the $19.95 price. The set for babies includes a quarter with a pair of little bare feet on the reverse; the wedding set quarter has a pair of intertwined rings. Perhaps in the distant future these sets will accrue some value. But what catches my eye even more than the images is the inscription in Latin around the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse of every Canadian coin: ELIZABETH II D. G. REGINA, standing for ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA, translated ELIZABETH II QUEEN BY THE GRACE OF GOD. A Canadian dollar is a coin with a loon on the reverse; they are known as loonies. The newer two-dollar coin therefore has the nickname of toonies. I keep a handful of toonies, loonies, quarters, dimes, nickels, and now outmoded pennies on my desk at school for instant access to international, current Latin.

Language on the Offense

I love the use of language terms in this poem, and I hope to find out more about John Agard's study of Latin.

Pandora's Vox

Yes, you read the title correctly. I heard a marvelous harpist, Alys Howe, at the Boxwood Festival concert in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia this week. Searching for more information about her recordings, I found also that Alys Howe had performed with a group called Pandora's Vox. A typo, I thought, until I watched a video about the group. Pandora's box is the mythological container that held both all the world's woes and hope. Why would a woman's choral group call itself Pandora's Vox? The Latin noun vox, vocis f. means "voice;" does this group sing of all the world's woes but also offer songs of hope? Searching a little more I found that one of the members of the Vox is named-- Pandora! From vox, vocis we also have in English vocal (pertaining to voice), and the trade name Magnavox means "great/big voice." The Latin verb vocō, vocāre, vocāvī, vocātum means "I call (i.e., use my voice)," and gives us all of the -voke, -vocative, and -vocation words: avocation (a calling away), convoke (I call together), evoke (I call out), invoke (I call on), provoke (I call forth), vocation (a calling). Pandora's Vox is provocative!

Trojan Swimmers

A brief mention in the Halifax Chronicle Herald alerted me to HTAC, the Halifax Trojan Aquatic Club. Founded in 1967, the centennial anniversary of Canada, the club dominates the competitive swimming scene in Atlantic Canada. Although I could not find a reason for their choosing Trojans as their name, the phrase in English to work like a Trojan has meant to work tirelessly to achieve a goal, such as the Trojans faced in keeping off for ten years the combined forces of the Greeks. I guess these young athletes are swimming like Trojans, and good luck to them! One last note: the HTAC practices in the Dalplex, the athletic center at Dalhousie University in Halifax. The combining form -plex is very productive in English from the Latin verb plicō, plicāre meaning "I fold," and appearing in words like duplex (two-fold), multiplex (many-fold), complex (folded-with/together), and complexity (a folding-with/together), and slightly more disguised words like accomplice (one folded-together-to/toward), explicit (out-folded), implicit (in-folded), replicate(make fold again), simplicity (single-foldedness), multiplicity (many-foldedness), and complicitous (full of/having to do with folded together).

Marketing Latin in Canada

I am just beginning to use Twitter as a resource, and I came upon this interview from Alberta, a fitting entry here. (The video graphics sound/look choppy, but the actual interview is smooth.) In a narrowly focused discussion, a marketing professor explains why Latin is a source of current branding trends. I am always amazed at the riches contained in Latin, a never-ending source of human linguistic creativity.

A Pleasant Connection

Somewhere in the back of my mind I remember watching a late-night television show about new businesses, and I learned about a store in Hong Kong called AMO ENO. This wine store's name means "I love wine," and it yields another classical frisson besides its name from a Latin verb and a Greek combining form. The Latin verb is amō, amāre, amāvī, amātum "I love," and the Greek combining form is oino-, which changed to oeno-, which was shortened to eno- and means "wine." The Latin noun is spelled vīnum, "wine." Using all Greek forms a wine lover is an oenophile, sometimes spelled enophile. When you look at the web address (www.amoeno.com), you will also see a form of a Latin adjective amoenus, a, um, "pleasant." The name of a town in Dutchess County, New York takes its name from this Latin adjective; Amenia, New York, is indeed a pleasant place.

Colorful Words

I’ve been reading a book all about color called All About Colour by Janice Lindsay. (You can tell the author is Canadian by the spelling of colour, which follows the spelling rules of England.) Ms Lindsay has added greatly to my list of common Latin words and phrases, as over the course of the last couple of days I have read the words dictum, gravitas, and proviso. Dictum is a Latin noun formed from the perfect passive participle of the verb dīcō, dīcere, dīxī, dictum which means “I say;” in English a dictum is a saying or an authoritative pronouncement. Gravitās is a Latin noun that means “heaviness, seriousness,” and is also the source of English gravity, the force that keeps things and people grounded. In English gravitas means “seriousness or importance,” and is a term often found to describe candidates for high public offices. Proviso comes from the Latin verb prōvideō, prōvidēre, prōvīdī, prōvīsum “I see ahead, take care, foresee.” From this verb also comes the Latin participle/adjective prūdēns, “foreseeing,” source of the English adjective prudent. A proviso is a thing foreseen or provided for, a condition, stipulation, or restriction, especially in legal documents. Latin always makes English more colorful.