Latin Phrase

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 3 07:15:00 EST 1999


At 9:59 PM -0500 3/2/99, Mary L B Pendergraft wrote:
>At 08:31 PM 3/2/99 -0500, MR DAGOBERTO   GARCIA wrote:
>>I know this may be off the topic a little. I more often lurk than
>>participate.
>>Does anyone know the latin phrase for "always ready"?
>>
>>Thanks
>>Dagoberto Garcia
>>
>>
>
>Semper paratus (masculine) parata (feminine) paratum (neuter).  This leapt
>to mind because it was the slogan on the automatic teller at my bank years
>ago--with the feminine, parata, which made me curious.....did it agree with
>pecunia=money?

That's good: "money always on hand." It should be noted also that SEMPER
PARATUS has been (and I assume still and always is) the motto of the Boy
Scouts. There was a celebrated parody of this by Tom Lehrer: "Be
prepared--that's the Boy Scouts' marching song; be prepared, as through
life you march along ..." after which point it drops into some less
commendable applications of the motto.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad at yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list