Sunday, August 3, 2008

Latin innuendo is the best.

From Donald Kim, a YDS grad of '06 and probably avid reader of this lovely site:

I found an article in Yale Alumni magazine, entitled "Naughty Latin 101."

Underneath the High Street Bridge was some graffiti that read: Optimates Defloreantur ("May the best be deflowered." It's a sly off-color play on ancient Roman sloganeering, which would mean "May the best flourish" but with the de-, you get something else. Something you'd get at Pompeii, says the Yale professor quoted in the article.)

Thanks, Donald!