Expert: Maria - 7/22/2011

Question
Good morning.  I found that my husband's wedding ring has the letters DMK inscribed on the inside.  I was hoping to use those letters to create a memorable phrase and upon searching the latin dictionary online, I thought I might be able to get "Finally, my Kenny" or "At last, my Kenny" in latin out of those letters.  Could you let me know if "Denique mei Kenny" would translate appropriately?  Thank you so much!

Answer
Hello,

first of all I'm wondering if the name Kenny that is usually masculine is used here as a feminine name.

If so, both “Finally, my Kenny" and  "At last, my Kenny" translate correctly as :”Denique, Mea Kenny” where  the adverb DENIQUE  means “finally/ at last” and  the adjective MEA in the vocative feminine agreed with the feminine name Kenny means “my”.

As you can see, the word “mei” is wrong since it would be a genitive masculine of the possessive masculine adjective MEUS which must be inflected and agreed with the feminine name Kenny it refers to and thus becomes MEA.


Best regards,
Maria
______________________________________________________________________________________
Note that the vocative feminine of MEUS is MEA, while the vocative masculine is MI.