Expert: Maria - 9/14/2009

Question
Maria,

I'm creating a family motto and while my first attempt (EX AMORE FELICITAS - happiness from love, right?) is not bad, it occurred to me that it would be clever to have a little pun in there. In particular I would want to use words that start with "EST" and "FIN" due to our family tree having people both from Estonia and Finland. The best I've been able to come up with (with absolutely no experience in Latin, other than some phrases in Asterix) is "AMOR EST FINIS" which I'm hoping could also be translated to mean "Love is (the) purpose". It sounds a little clumsy, though so I was hoping you could tell me whether it makes sense at all, possibly suggest how to revise it or, even better, propose a brand new one that is about love, happiness, joy, trust and/or family and meets the EST+FIN requirement.

I would also want to thank you for your answers so far - I've already learned a lot from them and your superior command of the classic Latin language.

Thank you!

Answer
Hello,

first of all your first attempt, i.e. EX AMORE FELICITAS (meaning exactly “Happiness from love”), was correct.

Anyway,  if you want to have a little pun in your family motto, by using  words that start with "EST" and "FIN", just to remind your family and descendants of  Estonia and Finland where you are from, you can say “FINIS EST AMOR” which is your translation with a different word order that sounds better in classical Latin.

In Latin in fact  syntactical relationships are indicated by the inflexional endings, not by the order of the words. Therefore it is not necessary to adhere to a strictly defined order.

As for  what you say about my answers that were helpful to you - more than Asterix, hopefully!- I’m glad to have helped you.

Best regards,
Maria
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-FINIS (3rd.declension, predicate in the nominative case) = purpose/aim
-EST (3rd.person singular, present indicative of SUM, I am) = is
-AMOR (3rd.declension, subject in the nominative case)= love