Latin Names for Factions

[abou]

Because what else am I doing for NYE during a pandemic?

The idea came to me today and figured it might be useful for some of us whether role playing in the Marian Hegemony or for fancy documentation, inscriptions, and unit mottos. Some words don't have a clean etymology.  For some a second option was included. Some adjectives were created because they don't exist in my dictionaries, but seem to work overall and follow the general pattern for Latin adjectives.

For the realm names I included their gender and indicated if plural. For adjectives I included the masculine, feminine, and neuter forms followed by their respective plurals in the same order. In Latin, adjectives tend to follow the noun they modify. Hence the reversal of word order.

The Free Worlds League I did in Greek because that just seemed appropriate. However, I don't know a lot of Greek... really any... so I cannot stand up for the veracity of that one. Unlike Latin, ancient Greek used articles which I included. In many of Cicero's letters he would throw in Greek concepts so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to see it.

Capellan Confederation
Foederatae Civitates Capellanae, fpl. or Societas Capellana, f.
adj. capellanus, capellana, capellanum; pl. capellani, capellanae, capellana
NOTE: capella comes from the Latin for she-goat, is also the name for the brightest star in the Auriga constellation. The titular Greek character Auriga is often depicted holding a goat. There should also be more jokes about the Capellans being she-goats.

Draconis Combine
Societas Draconica or Coniuncta Draconica, f.
adj. draconicus, draconica, draconicum; pl. draconici, draconicae, draconica
NOTE:sweet adjective basically saying, "of the dragon"; however, also doing double duty as draconian

Federated Suns
Soles Foederati, mpl.
adj. solaris (all forms the same); pl. solares m,f, solaria n
or
foederatus, foederata, foederatum; pl. foederati, foederatae, foederata

Lyran Commonwealth
Civitas Lyrana, f.
adj. lyranus, lyrana, lyranum; pl. lyrani, lyranae, lyrana
NOTE: The original symbol for the LC was of a lyre, the Latin word for which is lyra. Easy enough.

Free Worlds League
Ho Syndesmos Kosmon Eleutheron, m. NOTE: This translates to The League of Free Worlds, which is a possessive unlike the English title. Yet, that also seems to be the easiest grammatically to form.
adj. ho syndetos, to syndeton; pl. ho syndetoi, ta syndeta -- no feminine form, but I don't know much Greek
or
ho eleutheros, he (like hey) eleuthera; pl. ho eleutheroi, hai eleutherai -- tempting as eleutheros is roughly "free person", but may work better for those from the Periphery considering their attitude on the idea


So maybe that is helpful; maybe not. Maybe I'm completely wrong on things. But there you have it. Also, it is funny that the Marian Hegemony is named that considering their culture. The etymology of hegemony comes from the Greek hegemonia.

[idea weenie]

Another use could be an internal language for the Manei Domini to use.  This way they refer to other nations by the name the MD chose, not what the other nation chose.  This is a good way to dehumanize your opponent and start seeing them only as tools.

Interesting work there, thank you for doing it

[Metallgewitter]

That is interesting. The Terran Hegemony might simply be the Hegemonia Terra? Or rather Imperia Terra?

And what about the Republic which came closest to an actual roman Republic if you think about it? Republica Sphaera?

Not sure if those are real latin words I used google to get a Latin lexicon and I got those words as a result. 

[abou]

Thanks, IW. I'll keep at it if people are interested.

Metallgewitter, those are a bit trickier. For the Terran Hegemony, you are mixing Latin and Greek, but to hew closely to the original you might get:

Hegemonia Terrena, f.
adj. terrenus, terrena, terrenum; pl. terreni, terrenae, terrena

I am not sure why the vowel shift in the adjective from terra to terrenus, -a, -um, but that is what the dictionary shows.

For the Republic of the Sphere, res publica is Latin for republic... kind of. That is the etymology, but it was a sort of an idiomatic expression meaning public business or thereabouts. It looks as though the word for sphere is late Latin coming from the Greek.

Res Publica Sphaerae, f. -- so easy enough! Sometimes res publica is rendered as one word -- respublica
adj. popularis, pl. populares, popularia
NOTE: it is probably tempting to look for something like republican as an adjective, but no luck

[Ogra_Chief]

Thanks for this; it'll be a nice reference in the future.

[Metallgewitter]

Thanks, IW. I'll keep at it if people are interested.

Metallgewitter, those are a bit trickier. For the Terran Hegemony, you are mixing Latin and Greek, but to hew closely to the original you might get:

Hegemonia Terrena, f.
adj. terrenus, terrena, terrenum; pl. terreni, terrenae, terrena

I am not sure why the vowel shift in the adjective from terra to terrenus, -a, -um, but that is what the dictionary shows.

For the Republic of the Sphere, res publica is Latin for republic... kind of. That is the etymology, but it was a sort of an idiomatic expression meaning public business or thereabouts. It looks as though the word for sphere is late Latin coming from the Greek.

Res Publica Sphaerae, f. -- so easy enough! Sometimes res publica is rendered as one word -- respublica
adj. popularis, pl. populares, popularia
NOTE: it is probably tempting to look for something like republican as an adjective, but no luck

You're right that is indeed difficult. I learned Latin a long time ago but now I am completly out of the loop in regards to the grammatics of Latin words. Still this is really good. Would be kind of interesting how the Clans would be called in Latin.

[truetanker]

Still this is really good. Would be kind of interesting how the Clans would be called in Latin.

That's easy : Barbaricum ~ Land of the Barbarians!  ;D

TT

[abou]

Oh boy, the Clans... oof.

So there are a lot of options for just what would work for the word Clan. Gens, tribus, natio, etc.

Gens is tempting, but my inclination would be to use that with bloodnames. So similar to how the Romans would use that for families -- eg. the Julian gens and the Claudian gens. I would assume then that the name itself would follow in the genitive (or possessive) case. Not all names are able to be declined so it would probably just be inferred. An example would be gens Kerensky or gens Moon. You get it from context because two noun are linked up right next to each other.

gens, pl. gentes is a feminine noun

Now for the term clan itself... if you cannot use gens then what?

Tribus might be used, which translates to tribe. That kind of sticks with the context, but tribe also makes it sound small. So perhaps natio would work better. In modern English we kind of swap nation and state interchangeably, but that isn't really how it works. Nation has more of a cultural context -- think the Zulu nation or something.

natio, pl. nationes is also feminine. Can be used to define race, breed, class, tribe

Then it is just a matter of how you want to word it. Clan Wolf or Clan of Wolf? The genitive probably would work better because that way you aren't mixing masculine and feminine nouns... assuming we default to the masculine noun when given the option. I mean, we don't have to, but that is what we've done historically.

Natio Lupi
Natio Falconis Viridis
Natio Ursi Larvalis