Sup doods?
Here is a bit of Latin for you on a Monday morning. I always assumed that
Terra es, terram ibis
itself a shortening for :
Terra es et in terram ibis
and translated as
“You are earth and to the earth you will return” or “Dust you are and dust you will be”
although literally meaning “you are earth and into (the) earth you will go”, came from the Vulgate (the Latin bible).
I looked online and discovered that it came from Genesis (3:19) (powerful stuff), or so the entire internet told me.
I don’t trust the internet, and I have a copy of the vulgate, so I checked.
Genesis 3:19 is actually written:
… quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.
Well, the sense is the same, but ‘terra es et in terram ibis’ is most definitely a newer and more catchy version.
In case you are wondering:
pulvis: dust, powder
revertere: to revert.
By the way,
Terra es, terram ibis
is not only a shortening but grammatically incorrect (if such things bother your inner pedant).
terram
is the accusative form of
terra
It is in the accusative form, as it is governed by the preposition ‘in‘ which in Latin takes the accusative when it has the meaning ‘into’.
As the evenings draw in, I’m thinking about adding more to the Latin sections on SurfaceLanguages.
Pax,
MF