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Group 79: Latin

1038. Ditat deus.

1039. Deus prosperat iustos.

1040. Nummus regnat ubique.

1041. Regnat populus.

1042. Lupus hiat.

1043. Asinus gestat mysteria.

1044. Dormitat et Homerus.

1045. Sapientissimus et peccat.

1046. Etiam prudentissimus peccat.

1047. Praenuntiat fumus incendium.

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Study Guide

1038. God enriches. (Notice that, as often in Latin, the subject comes after the verb, not before. This is the state motto of Arizona.)

1039. God bestows favor on the righteous. (The adjective iustos, is being used substantively here, meaning "the righteous (people.")

1040. Money reigns everywhere. (The Latin nummus means, literally, "coin." You will find this phrase in the medieval Carmina Burana 11.)

1041. The people rule. (This is the state motto of Arkansas.)

1042. The wolf is gaping. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

1043. The donkey is carrying the religious icons. (You can read a brief essay about this proverb at the AudioLatinProverbs.com blog.)

1044. Even Homer naps. (In other words, sometimes event Homer, great poet though he was, was asleep at the wheel, composing lines of poetry that do not radiate the transcendent greatness that critics expected from the renowned poet.)

1045. The wisest man also makes mistakes. (In Christian Latin, peccare means "to sin," but in classical Latin it means simply "to make a mistake, err, blunder.")

1046. Even the most prudent man errs. (Notice how the words et and etiam can be used in Latin to mean "also," "too," "even," etc. You can see this in proverbs 1044, 1045 and here in 1046. Yes, the et really is the word for "and" and the way you can understand that is by imagining what other side of the et or etiam is implied but left out: [Other poets nap] AND Homer naps; The wisest man [does wise things] AND he makes mistakes; [Foolish people make mistakes] AND the most prudent man makes mistakes. It's helpful to do that so you can see if the et goes with the subject of the verb as in 1044 and 1046 or more with the verb itself, as in 1045.)

1047. The smoke foretells the fire. (In other words, where there's smoke, there's fire. You can find this phrase used in the writings of the Roman philosopher Seneca.)