Okay, new question

Disabled

My brain is blurring out from staring at lists of Latin nouns, so I’m going to throw this a bit wider open and see what the commentariat can suggest.

In this totally hypothetical story that I’m totally not working on, there is a group of female knights under holy orders, in a secondary-world setting modeled on medieval Europe, serving the Queen of a place that will probably look like France. I want their names to form a list of the virtues they are supposed to uphold. (There is room for irony here, as they will not always live up to those names.)

What virtues would you expect to see on that list?

I need a total of twelve; suggest as many as you like. Bonus points if you can provide me with Latin nouns matching your suggestions, ending in either -tas or -ia — I’m trying to see if I can get a satisfactory set without having to rejigger any of the Latin. (I can put together twelve on either pattern, but not without leaving out some concepts I think I’d like to include.)

0 Responses to “Okay, new question”

  1. iriththedreamer

    Truth-Veritas is the easy one. I’ve never actually studied latin so I’m not really sure of latin for the rest of these, but Justice(Aequitas?), Mercy, Honor, Fidelity, Charity, and Piety strike me as good ones. Hope that helps?

    • Marie Brennan

      It does help; I’m both curious to see which ideas people agree on, and which ones get suggested that I haven’t thought of already.

      • Anonymous

        <vbeg> You could just struggle through The Faerie Queen … naaah. I wouldn’t wish that on James Fenimore Cooper.

        • Marie Brennan

          Been there, done that, didn’t even end up using any of the possible epigraphs in Midnight Never Come.

          (Okay, I skimmed it rather than reading fully. And only the first three books. Still.)

  2. astres

    Virginia XD

  3. lady_jade_01

    Gimmie a couple of days….I’m sure my latin friends can come up with some…hehehehe

  4. stormsdotter

    I don’t know if you’ve seen Quest for Camelot, but the Virtues extolled in the opening song would be perfect. (Sadly, I am about to go to bed and in no state of mind to dig out my Latin books!)

    YouTube has the song, the part you want starts at 2:25: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfjW8Lz1_g8

  5. beccastareyes

    Hmm… Wisdom, Compassion, Courage, Camaraderie/Fellowship, Fealty*, Hope, Faith.

    * I suppose you could combine these last two into Loyalty.

    No Latin skills so I’d at most be looking stuff up in a dictionary.

    • Marie Brennan

      Loyalty/fidelity/faith is actually the one driving me the most crazy: I can’t find a Latin noun that will express anything suitable in that vein while also ending in -ia. If I could get that, I’d probably have a workable set.

  6. shadowkindrd

    I’m doing something similar with virtues, so here’s my list (it’s not that similar, trust me. Feel free to borrow. 🙂

    Tenacity
    Defiance
    Confidence
    Zeal
    Diligance
    Glory
    Allegiance
    Belief
    Loyalty
    Integrity
    Patience
    Preserverence

    Defiance may not work for you, but it does for me. 😀

  7. ckastens

    As a point of reference, Ramon Llull’s Book on the Order of Knighthood (ca. 1275) lists three theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) and four cardinal virtues (Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance). He also mentions in passing Chastity, Loyalty, Courage, and Humility. So there are eleven for you.
    He also goes into the vices that undermine them, such as: Greed, Gluttony, Luxury, Pride, Weakness, Infidelity, etc. I can look up more of the vices if you’d like those as well, there are at least eleven of them in the book as well.

    • Marie Brennan

      That was one of the first things I started with, yeah — that and the Boy Scout Law. 🙂 I feel like I’m trying to coordinate the decorations for a room, coming up with twelve that meet my needs.

  8. novalis

    Curiosity, Love, Honesty, Sacrifice, Humility

  9. anotheranon

    Humility, patience.

  10. kizmet_42

    Well, Latin-less here – I took Greek, not Latin.

    However:

    Temperance
    Charity
    Faithfulness
    Purity
    Self-Restraint (I’m thinking the opposite of anger. Humility might work.)
    Constancy
    Gentleness (irony with the concept of lady knights)

    Oh, and now I’m thinking “dames” instead of lady knights, which brings a whole new dynamic in, doesn’t it?

    Strength
    Boldness
    Forthrightness
    Power (in Greek, that may be Dunamia or Dynamia)

  11. Anonymous

    Caritas
    Virtus – bonus points for irony if it’s a woman! Though of course most readers won’t be in on the joke.
    Castitas – maybe Virginitas to make it more obvious
    Fidelitas
    Honos – too obscure? But the alternate form Honor is homographous with English
    Spes – I love the way this sounds, but you might need to go with Sperantia for clarity
    Justitia
    Venia – or Misericordia or maybe Clementia

    • Marie Brennan

      Is sperantia actually a word? I’m not pulling it up in the Perseus dictionary search.

      • Anonymous

        Not a real word, alas. But if you’re fudging anyway…

        You could also try Sperans, which has a nice sound.

        • Marie Brennan

          Eh, I’m trying to avoid fudging now. Otherwise I’d just chuck Fidelia onto the list and be done with it.

          I don’t suppose you can suggest a word ending in -ia that conveys some concept in the neighborhood of faith/duty/loyalty/friendship? About the best I’ve been able to do are harmonia and constantia, neither of which are quite what I want.

          (Somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent of my readership would really be bugged by invention of that sort, and a lot more would be semi-seriously bugged; that’s a high enough number that I’d rather do this by the book if I can.)

  12. unforth

    I don’t know latin, and don’t have time to read others suggestions, so sorry if these are repetitious – here are some that come to mind:
    chastity, nobility, bravery, restraint, sensibility, intelligence (or maybe scholarliness – or similar. Sorry. I’m tired. 😉 )…that’s all that’s coming to mind. Hope any of it’s helpful. I do think chastity is an important one given that it’s medieval Europe, it’s the first thing that came to mind. Oh, honesty is another one.

  13. hawkwing_lb

    Hope, faith, charity, justice, prudence, temperence, fidelity, courage, self-restraint, chastity, honesty, piety, humility, patience, obedience, love of country, love of wisdom.

  14. Marie Brennan

    No, I haven’t. The Internets are failing to tell me what the Virtues are, too. <sadface>

  15. Marie Brennan

    Muchas gracias! (Gotta love how they put Virginity and Chastity and Abstinence in there.)

  16. Marie Brennan

    Yeah, I figured. (I chose “Castimonia” for my final list because it covers moral purity while also including the concept of chastity.) But it still amuses me. 🙂

  17. shui_long

    I am not convinced that all of these are actually virtues, or appropriate, and it’s a bit of a strain to get twelve, but…

    iustitia
    fiducia
    sapientia
    amicitia
    constantia
    intellegentia
    temperantia
    patientia
    continentia
    misericordia
    oboedientia
    diligentia

    veritas
    integritas
    castitas
    comitas
    benignitas/liberalitas
    fidelitas
    honestas
    hospitalitas (?)
    pietas
    sanitas
    perspicuitas

    pugnacitas (may be appropriate, but is it a virtue?)

    (tenacitas is probably not a virtue – it comes close to meanness… and ditto for humilitas, which means shallowness or insignificance)

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