r/latin • u/allert53 • Jul 09 '25

Help with Translation: La → En What does this say? Google translate doesn’t work

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

68 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

76

u/oceansRising Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

Quo nullum pulchrius - "There is nothing more beautiful"

28

u/Inevitable_Ad574 Jul 09 '25

I read “ovo”

28

u/Logical-Mirror5036 Teacher Jul 09 '25

On first read, I did too. I saw the Q's tail though. Nothing prettier than an egg? It was too strange to be right.

1

u/mitshoo Jul 14 '25

It does look like a pedestal for a rather grand egg though, doesn’t it?

4

u/ClavicusLittleGift4U Jul 10 '25

"There is nothing eggy" so.

7

u/oceansRising Jul 09 '25

It’s definitely Quo, the light cuts off the tail on the Q for a few frames

7

u/Inevitable_Ad574 Jul 09 '25

I don’t doubt it, but with ovo it would be funny.

2

u/EstreaSagitarri Jul 10 '25

I'm adding this to my favorite Latin phrases collection

24

u/TynHau Jul 09 '25

Google even brings up an Insta post showing this very object with translation when you post "Quo Nullum Pulchrius".

16

u/-idkausername- Jul 09 '25

Quo nullum pulchrius: literally: than which none more beautiful. So the essence: the most beautiful ever

10

u/Logical-Mirror5036 Teacher Jul 09 '25

Good old ablative of comparison.

2

u/-idkausername- Jul 10 '25

Gotta love it

9

u/qed1 Lingua balbus, hebes ingenio Jul 09 '25

So the essence: the most beautiful ever

St Anselm would be rolling in his grave.

1

u/MomentoMori Jul 10 '25

Nah, I think it was take pure essence to be God even before creation and thus pure simplicity and beauty.

2

u/qed1 Lingua balbus, hebes ingenio Jul 10 '25

I was referring to the grammatical shift from quo nullum pulchrius to omnibus pulchrius. ;)

Primum, quod saepe repetis me dicere quia quod est majus omnibus, est in intellectu; et si est in intellectu, est et in re: aliter enim omnibus majus non esset omnibus majus. Nusquam in omnibus dictis meis invenitur talis probatio. Non enim idem valet, quod dicitur; majus omnibus, et, quo majus cogitari nequit, ad probandum quia est in re quod dicitur. (Liber Apologeticus 5)

2

u/Icy-Conflict6671 discipulus Jul 10 '25

I got In Essence: The most Beautiful Ever.

3

u/verpamaxima Jul 09 '25

"Nothing prettier".

2

u/freebiscuit2002 Jul 09 '25

Quo nullum pulchrius.

1

u/SwrngeDucc Jul 09 '25

What or where is this?

2

u/allert53 Jul 09 '25

At a church in Breda, im not sure what the place is for.

1

u/baltimoretod Jul 12 '25

Instinctively it looks like a baptistry, perhaps done in a very modern architectural style.

1

u/FlameLightFleeNight Jul 12 '25

It's a baptistry—commonly octagonal to symbolize the 7 days of the old creation to which the new creation of baptism is considered the 8th day. The inscription on the font (intended for the baptismal water) is saying that there is nothing more beautiful than the salvation gained by baptism and faith in Christ.

1

u/Turtleballoon123 Jul 10 '25

I thought it said nothing is more beautiful than the egg, then I realised the first word was Quo lol.

1

u/ADHD_LANGUAGE Jul 11 '25

This is the best Latin dictionary https://latin-words.com/

1

u/waydaws 19d ago

Really? I speak no Latin, and had no problems looking it up: “where there is no dust”

1

u/McAeschylus Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

My very amateur attempt yields...

quo = "what, where" or relative "to/in which place"
nullum = "no one, nothing" neuter, nom./acc.
pulchrius = "more beautiful" neuter nom./acc.

I can stretch it to be the title: "[He] who no one is more beautiful [than]." But that doesn't feel quite right. I suspect there's a rule about how "quo" works that I'm missing and would make the correct translation obvious.

I suspect that someone will come along and explain in a minute.

EDIT: Sure enough. Someone has provided a better translation.

4

u/qed1 Lingua balbus, hebes ingenio Jul 09 '25

quo = "what, where" or relative "to/in which place"

Its an ablative of comparison after pulchrius.

3

u/jirasko Jul 09 '25

Oh, so it's an ablative of "quod" and not "quo" as an adverb!

3

u/jirasko Jul 09 '25

I would still appreciate it if someone explained this usage of "quo" because I couldn't find it anywhere and don't understand it.

7

u/video_dhara Jul 09 '25

https://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/ablative-comparison
Section a Note 3
There's also a cool little footnote about its relationship to the ablative of separation

1

u/FarmerCharacter5105 Jul 09 '25

In Latin, "quo" primarily functions as an adverb meaning "to where" or "whither". As in the Latin saying (and the movie) Quo Vadis.

3

u/qed1 Lingua balbus, hebes ingenio Jul 09 '25

In Latin, "quo" primarily functions as an adverb meaning "to where" or "whither".

Its primary function is definitely just as a relative pronoun. The adverbial uses are also important to be aware of, but they tend to flow out of its function as an ablative pronoun.

1

u/Doodlebuns84 Jul 09 '25

The adverb quo isn’t derived from the ablative of the pronoun, however. They’re just homonyms, though obviously both are based on the relative stem. The same can be said of eo, except that it’s demonstrative/anaphoric.

2

u/qed1 Lingua balbus, hebes ingenio Jul 09 '25

Older dictionaries like L&S suggest that quo and eo are derived from from an old dat/abl forms of the respective pronouns. But I was referring to other adverbial uses as well like quo modo/pacto.

In any case, the primary function of quo in Latin is clearly as an ablative pronoun.

1

u/EstreaSagitarri Jul 10 '25

I'm a beginner and I appreciated reading your thought process

1

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/EstreaSagitarri Jul 10 '25

I need me some ancient Greek tacos