Thursday, April 19, 2012

Iurisconsultus

Here is today's distich by John Owen, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey, 1.54. note the nice play on words, since prudens in Latin is itself a contraction of providens.

Iurisconsultus
Iurisprudentes prudentes iure vocantur:
Tam bene cum studeant provideantque sibi.


OF LAWYERS
Lawyers are prudent, provident beside,
For prudently They for Themselves provide.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There are three words which are not on the DCC list:

iūrisprūdens, iūrisprūdentis - legal scholar, legal expert
prōvideo -ēre, prōvīdī, prōvīsum - foresee, provide for, make provision
prūdens, prūdentis - knowledgeable, foreseeing

bene: well
cum: with (prep. + abl.); when, since, although (conjunction + subj.)
iūs iūris n.: right, justice, law
que: and (enclitic)
studeo -ēre -uī: be eager, be zealous, care for (+ dat.)
sui, sibi, sē: him- her- itself
tam: so
voco -āre: call