Apr 30, 2001 13:10
23 yrs ago
Latin term

Fortune multis dat mimium nulli satis

Non-PRO Latin to English Tech/Engineering
Appears in the signature file of a coworker. What's he saying?

Proposed translations

10 hrs

Fortune gives many too much but nobody enough

Perhaps you meant the following:

"Sententiae Latinae - Latin Maxims

Fortuna multis dat nimis, nulli satis.

Fortune gives many too much but nobody enough.

(Martialis, Epigrammaton liber).
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+1
1 day 21 hrs

Fortune gives too much to many people, but never "enough" to anyone.

The correctly spelled Latin form is: Fortuna multis dat nimium, nulli satis.

FORTUNA: "fortune, (the goddess) Lady Luck" -- Nominative case form, functioning as the subject of the verb DAT.

MULTIS: "to many (people)" -- Dative case form, plural, of the adjective MULTI, functioning as the (first) beneficiary or so-called indirect object" of the verb DAT.

DAT: "gives" -- present tense (indicative mood) of the verb DO, DARE.

NIMIUM: "too much, excessive amounts, excessively" -- a neuter pronoun (often adverbial), also written as NIMIS, functioning as the (first) patient or "direct object" of the verb DAT.

NULLI: "to nobody, to no one" -- a pronoun (or adjective) in the dative case (dictionary form is NULLUS, NULLA, NULLUM), MULTI, functioning as the (second or alternaitve) beneficiary or so-called indirect object" of the verb DAT.

SATIS: "enough, sufficient amounts, sufficiently" -- a neuter pronoun (often adverbial), functioning as the (second or alternative) patient or "direct object" of the verb DAT.


Peer comment(s):

agree Mariusz Rytel (X)
1552 days
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