Question hi!
can you please help me translate the phrase design for design's sake in latin
like the ars gratia artis?
i want to write this without the word art
i can't find anywhere the translation of the word design
thank you :o))
Answer Hello,
Please note that in Latin there is no word meaning “design”, as we know it today.
In Roman times in fact there is no “design”, of course, simply because such a concept of “the arrangement of elements or details in a product or work of art”, just as we know it today, was inexistent.
Therefore there are only two Latin words which could be used to translate the English noun “design”, though they do not fully correspond to this noun.
Here they are:
-DESCRIPTIO (nominative, 3rd.declension) which however means “representation, delineation, description”.
-GRAPHIS (nominative, 3rd.declension) meaning “drawing”, as we read in Vitruvius (1st.cent.BC) in his 'De Architectura' (On Architecture).
So, if you want to use the above nouns in the translation of “design for design's sake”, like “Ars gratia artis”, you must say as follows:
-“Descriptio gratia descriptionis”
-“Graphis gratia graphidis”.
No other translation is possible.
Best regards,
Maria
____________________________________________
Note that:
-DESCRIPTIO or GRAPHIS (subject in the nominative case, 3rd.declension) = design
GRATIA (ablative case, 1st.declension) = for sake
DESCRIPTIONIS (genitive of DESCRIPTIO) or GRAPHIDIS (genitive of GRAPHIS) = design’s
