First Thousand Words in Latin by Heather Amery, Mairi MacKinnon (Editor), Stephen Cartwright (Illustrator)

First Thousand Words in Latinby Anonymous

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September 11, 2008: My experience with this book brings to mind a famous Latin proverb: Caveat Emptor ('Buyer beware.') At first glance this book is a promising learning tool for Latin students, it is packaged colorfully with beautiful pictures. But this book is very little more than a bunch of colorful pictures. I found at least an error per page, some so egregious that it seemed like a first year Latin student put this work together. I would not recommend this book to anyone! I would like to illustrate some of the problems found in this book. It would be impossible to list all the mistakes here (I found more than 90(!!) in the entire book.) However, by citing particular mistakes I hope to give a prospective buyer a good synopsis before he makes a decision about this illustrated book of gibberish. [1] On the first page which includes Latin words (p.4) 'tapetum' is written under the picture of a carpet or rug but the word for rug/carpet in Latin is 'tapete'. [2] On p.12 under the picture of a cafe, the word 'caffeum' is written, which is obviously a neologism or a recently coined Latin word since it has its root in the word for 'coffee'. There is no need to introduce such a word, since Latin has a term for a bar or cafe where hot drinks are served, 'thermopolium'. This is an example, one of many, of an unnecessary neologism. [3] On the same page under a picture of a Bulldozer appears 'machina ad fodiendum', which simply means 'a machine for digging'. Not only does a bulldozer generally not dig, but modern Latin speakers do not use this term, but rather 'currus propulsorius', which means 'a chariot/vehicle for pushing stuff forward'. In this example the attempt at a circumlocution misses the mark. [4] On the same page under a picture for a woman appears the word for woman (femina), but under the corresponding picture of a man appears the word for human (homo). [5] On p. 13 appears another circumlocution, 'machina ad vias levigandas' which means 'a machine for making roads smooth'. This is a good description of the item illustrated unfortunately Romans had a machine just like it, called a 'cylindrus'. [6] On p.28 under the picture of a female teacher (magistra) appears the word for a male teacher ('magister'). [7] Legumes in Latin do not have a plural form, nevertheless on p.34 there appears the erroneous plural form 'pisa'. This is an error in grammatical usage. [8] Under the picture of yogurt on p.35 appears the phrase 'spoiled milk' ('lac fermentatum'). There exist three acceptable ways to express yogurt in Latin, thank goodness 'spoiled milk' is not one of them. (The three ways being: iogurtum / oxygala / melca) [9] Under the picture of jam or jelly, appears 'quilon' which means the jelly of the human eye. I would not want that smeared on my toast! [10] The number twenty (20) is misspelled in the Latin. ('Viginte' for 'viginti'.) This is an example of the many typos included. There are many more errors I have selected a small number here which are both serious and easy to understand for people with fairly no knowledge of Latin.