Talk:noli illegitimi carborundum

Language

Should this really be "Pseudo-Latin" or would "English" be better (with a note that it is borrowed - poorly - from Latin...perhaps category:English borrowed words)? --Connel MacKenzie 21:21, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think 'Pseudo-Latin' is correct. It's not Latin but is intended to sound like Latin. --Stephenboothuk 07:42, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, I don't see 'Pseudo-Latin' on the list of real languages. According to Wiktionary guidelines the language heading ought to be something that appears on ISO 639. --Connel MacKenzie 08:42, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

It's not English either. It's just bad Latin, mostly being used by native English speakers. — LlywelynII 16:17, 30 April 2018 (UTC)

In literature

In Cry Wolf by Wilbur Smith (written in the '70s, but taking place in the '30s), one of the lead characters, a Brit, uses the phrase.

In M. Atwood's more recent novel, The Handmaid's Tale, the variant Nolite te bastardes carborundorum is used.

Correct Version

Both this page and Wikipedia's happily tell readers that they're wrong in using this phrase ... but neither bothers to offer a correct translation. And I notice that Google Translate has been infected by the inaccuracy. Very helpful. Not. Heenan73 (talk) 18:17, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

I mentioned the correct version in the etymology section. Credits go to Stephen G. Brown for giving us the translation. --Romanophile (talk) 18:31, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

noli nothis permittere te terere

There are plenty of ways to translate the phrase into proper Latin. Does anyone actually use it? Does it appear in any sources? Does it bear inclusion in a separate entry?

In any case, a single double-negative OR "emendation" doesn't belong in the etymology section of the entry. It would go under synonyms (if the entry is Latin) or translation (if people disagree and feel the entry is somehow English) assuming any of the above criteria are actually met. They aren't, so it's probably best just to leave it here next to Romanophile's comment. — LlywelynII 16:17, 30 April 2018 (UTC)

Alt Usage English.org

• Alt Usage English.org

was listed in the 'sources' for the page but displays nothing and there's nothing cached at that name by Google as far as I can tell. There's this and this in the alt.usage.english forums hosted by Google but they say it was posted on Van. Bush's wall.

See also this source which gives an entirely different derivation from what we've currently got, further strengthening its origin in legitimately garbled Latin rather than a coinage within English. — LlywelynII 16:34, 30 April 2018 (UTC)