Expert: Maria - 8/23/2006

Question
I recently started working on my genealogy and another member of the family sent me the Lewis Coat of Arms.  There is a phrase at the bottom I am assuming is Latin but after trying a Latin to English dictionary I can not discern what it means.  Some words were found but others were not when using the dictionary.  Can you tell me what language the following phrase is in and what is actually says:

       OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA EST


Answer
Hello,

The sentence OMNE SOLUM FORTI PATRIA EST is Latin, of course, and is a quotation from the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC -17 AD) who wrote this verse in his work entitled “Fasti”('Festivals'), book I, line 493.

It means “Every land is a homeland for the courageous man” .

Please note that:
-OMNE (nominative neuter singular of the adjective OMNIS. This adjective is agreed with the noun SOLUM) = every.

-SOLUM (nominative neuter singular of the noun SOLUM) = land.

-FORTI (dative singular of the adjective FORTIS ) = the courageous, i.e. the courageous man.

-PATRIA (nominative of the noun PATRIA) = a homeland.

-EST (present indicative, 3rd.person singular of the verb SUM) = is.

Latin word order is different from English, as you can see.

As for dictionary, when using it you have to look up the headwords of  Latin, i.e. the nominative of a noun /adjective and the 1st. person of the present indicative of a verb.
For example OMNIS instead of OMNE, FORTIS instead of FORTI, and SUM instead of EST.
Latin is in fact an inflected language.

Hope all is clear enough.
Feel free however to ask me again.
Best,
Maria