homeaboutarchivenewslettermembership!
aboutarchivemembership!
aboutarchivemembers!

kottke.org posts about Latin

Vatican City ATMs use Latin

posted by Jason Kottke   Apr 26, 2012

ATMs in the Vatican City have Latin as one of the language options:

Latin ATM

Anyone know what that means? Google Translate spits out a bunch of jibberish... (Photo by Seth Schoen)

Update: Lots of slightly different answers as to what this says, but this email from a Ph.D. candidate in Classics at Columbia is representative of the spread:

Anyhow, a super-literal translation would be something like this:

I ask that you insert [your] card in order that you come to understand the method needing to be used.

But more colloquially, we can do this:

Please insert your card to learn the instructions.

or even (although I'm really getting into sloppy translation territory here):

Please insert your card for instructions.

(thx, charles)

Update: And it may be more accurate to say that Vatican City ATMs previously offered a Latin option. According to @johnke, "they removed the Latin option with a software update sometime in late 2010/early 2011".

How to swear in Latin. (via cyn-c)

posted by Jason Kottke   Sep 22, 2006

How to swear in Latin. (via cyn-c)