Daily Mail article on celebrities with Latin tattoos
Monday, July 26, 2010
It's not often that I link to the Daily Mail, but this article has an interesting list of Latin tattoos sported by celebrities that it claims is increasing interest in the language itself. Not a difficult claim to make since it's not possible that interest wouldn't increase at least to a certain extent, but it's difficult to say exactly by how much.
The one that doesn't make sense (Quis attero mihi tantum planto mihi validus) is discussed here on the Straight Dope forums as well. It's supposed to mean the equivalent of "whatever doesn't kill me only makes me stronger" but even some basic knowledge of Latin (such as that -o means first person singular) would have helped to realize that the sentence is off. One person there has translated it as "Whatever strong I rub against myself will so much increase for me" and another has tried "Quis atterit mihi tantum mihi plantit fortius" as the correct translation. Olivier will know whether it is or not.