How do you say "Keep off the Grass" in Latin?

surdoux

Summoventem herba. Jan 05 13, 2:41 PM

sportsherald

A "machine translation" at http://translate.google.ca/?hl=en&tab=wT#en/la/keep%20off%20the%20grass does provide "summoventem herba," but there is a lively scholarly debate on alternate phrasing at https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/alt.language.latin/Cf4whZiwrjM; the most amusing suggestion is:"Want people to keep off the grass? What about getting a big dog and put up CAVE CANEM?" Since a recent question here http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question128774.html led to abechstein http://www.funtrivia.com/profile/abechstein.html telling us he/she "majored in Classical Languages as an undergraduate and engaged in graduate studies in Greek and Latin," you may want to ask abechstein directly. Jan 05 13, 6:46 PM

bloomsby

Where's the imperative in "Summoventem herba"? Jan 05 13, 8:13 PM

Ampelos

How about "Nolite ambulare in herbam"? Literally, "do not walk on the grass". Jan 05 13, 8:39 PM

Baloo55th

Google Translate gives 'Summoventem herba', and I confess I don't like it. Especially as 'Stay off the grass' translates to 'manere off foenum'. So far as I am aware, 'off' is not a Latin word. I feel that GT is not so hot on Latin. (It isn't on Japanese and Chinese, either...) 'Summoventem' is a participle, not an imperative, and the verb summoveo (or 'submoveo') has more the sense of 'get rid' rather than 'stay off'. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/summovens#Latin For an answer to the question, I'd back Ampelos's idea, or suggest the briefer 'Non in herbam ambulare' which perhaps has more of the Latin word order. ('Super herbam' is also possible, but has more the sense of 'on top of' as in 'on the table'. Grass is walkable on if a championship golf green, but in terms of lawns, 'in' is rather more accurate.) Jan 06 13, 9:17 AM