[Bards] "Vivat Ghastly Malapropism!"

Jay Rudin rudin at ev1.net
Tue Jun 12 21:51:43 PDT 2007


Duchess Willow asked:

>I am a little confused. Vivat Rex is OK being in the same language
> but Vivat King would be wrong?

That's half of it, yes.  "Vivat Rex" is a well-formed Latin sentence. 
"Vivat King" is not proper Latin or proper English or proper anything else.

The other half is that "Vivat Rex" (or "Vivat Regina") is what medieval and 
Renaissance people actually did yell (or chant) at the end of a coronation, 
and what the Vulgate has, all over Europe, for "Long live King Solomon". 
"Vivat King" was never heard, as far as I know, before the 21st century, 
because nobody would ever use the Latin subjunctive verb "vivat " who 
didn't also know that the Latin for "king" is "rex". It's as awkward and 
silly as "Long live the rex!"  If you were bothering to speak Latin at all, 
you would, ... well, speak Latin.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin 




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