Last Friday J.M. Tate High School held their commencement ceremonies at the Pensacola Civic Center. The ceremony was wonderful, and the salutatorian gave an amazing speech that was uplifting and extremely encouraging. She also thanked her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for all of the blessings in her life--which drew a thunderous ovation.
After the ceremony ended, several staff members were milling around in the green room and a discussion started regarding the picture on the program. First it was about the flags on the picture, and then it moved to the subject of what the latin phrase in the logo means.
Somebody plugged the phrase into Google translate, and soon laughter could be heard around the table.
"What does it mean, I asked--wanting to be let in on what was apparently so funny"
I was handed the phone when one person at the table stated, while fighting back laughter, "I can't say it out loud!"
Now I was really curious.
I looked at the screen and immediately understood why everyone was in hysterics. The screen read
"What we now dung"
What? In disbelief, I too punched the latin phrase into Google translate. And yes, "Quid erimus nunc fimus" translated to "What we now dung" in English.
Was this a misprint?!? I queried to the assembled brain-trust, many of whom are Tate Alumni.
No was the resounding answer I received. But how could nobody have ever bothered to check what this means I wondered.
Soon, one person there who has a college professor in the family attempted to verify that this could, in fact, be true. Verification came soon after.
"Now, if it was spelled this way, it would have meant _________" or "If ____________ was actually spelled like this _ _ _ _ _ _---then it would really mean this" sort of conversations began to occur.
I wondered out loud about whether or not this could be the longest running practical joke in the history of the school district. "Could an intelligent, edgy student have deliberately put the phrase in there knowing what it meant twenty, thirty, forty or more years ago----and never come clean about it?" .. ......I could almost hear how such a conversation may have went.........
"Uh, don't worry, coach. I looked it up and the guys from the Latin club assured me that this means
"We now go forth in victory!" LOL.... "Yeah coach, it means we are the winners!!"
Someone in the room added to the humor when they quipped--"Maybe this was a prank, Tate is known for their Ag program!"
I must admit this provided everyone in the room with quite a belly-laugh. I personally think it was probably a misprint that happened somewhere down the line.
Who knows, though?
The superintendent admitted he was not sure how/when this phrase was put on the logo.
"I'm going to ask about it, though" he stated to the group.
Stay tuned........
In Latin, usually verbs come at the end of a sentence not nouns. So fimus is plural passive conjugation of facere which means ‘make, do, accomplish’ - the same verb in modern Italian. So the phrase roughly translates as ‘what we will be, we are now becoming (accomplishing)’ correct and actually quite fitting for a graduation or school motto. I guess no students at the school took many Romance language courses ;) I wouldn’t trust Google translate for Latin as it’s likely Vulgar Latin and imprecise - as it is with most languages. Hope this is helpful in solving the mystery.
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