Expert: Maria - 7/22/2008

Question
QUESTION: In the 1920's my Aero club introduced as its motto the latin phrase "aquilis antea nunc nobis". No one is quite sure what it means anymore. Also they aren't sure if the 'O' in 'nobis' should be a 'u'.Can you please help?

ANSWER: Hello,

First of all the  Latin phrase "Aquilis antea nunc nobis” is correct; secondly,it literally means:

-“Once to the eagles, now to us”.

This Latin motto which sounds very suitable for an Aero club should be in full as follows:
-“Aquilis coelum erat antea, nunc nobis”
just meaning “The sky once belonged to the eagles, now it belongs to us“.

As you can see, the Latin noun  “coelum”(the sky) and the Latin verb “erat” (literally, ‘was’ in the sense of “belonged”) have been omitted, just because all the  mottoes  aim at being concise.

See below for grammatical analysis.

Best regards,
Maria
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AQUILIS (dative plural of AQUILA, eagle)= to the eagles
ANTEA = once /before
NUNC = now
NOBIS (dative plural of the pronoun NOS, 1st.person plural) = to us

Note that both the datives AQUILIS and NOBIS depend on the omitted verb “erat” (belonged) whose subject is “coelum”(the sky).


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Maria, Do you mean it would be better or proper for the Club to use the complete wording instesd of the shortened version? I have passed your information on to some Club members already and they were very impressed and grateful for your assistance.
Cheers, Tony

Answer
Hello,

Glad to have helped you.

As for your question, I don’t think that it would be better or proper for the Club to use the complete wording (“Aquilis coelum erat antea, nunc nobis”)  instead of the shortened version (“Aquilis antea nunc nobis”).

In fact the mottoes usually like the conciseness and thus  “Aquilis antea nunc nobis” is working well, just because  whoever knows Latin is able to understand that two words (coelum erat) have been omitted.

Anyway the only change I could suggest is to put a comma between “antea” and “nunc” to emphasize the meaning as in “ Aquilis antea, nunc nobis”.

Best regards,
Maria
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Please note that the Latin word COELUM (sky)can be written also CAELUM with the diphthong AE instead of OE.