May 30, 2002
Linguistic Quibble

I just ran across Kevin McGehee's BlogoSFERICS on Instapundit, and this entry from last Friday:

Crude Pun of the Week
Veni, Vidi, Vomi
("I came, I saw, I got sick to my stomach.")
Useful for much of what passes for entertainment these days.

The sentiment is unexceptionable, and witty, but the Latin needs a little work. I've seen Veni, Vidi, Vomiti on some other site, but that is also wrong. The correct form (already used by a least a few Latin teachers) is Veni, Vidi, Vomui. The pronunciation, as best I can represent it without the international phonetic alphabet, is 'Wáy-nee, Wée-dee, Wóm-oo-ee'.

By the way, if you want to say "I think I'm going to puke", that would be Puto me vomiturum esse if a man is speaking, Puto me vomituram esse if a woman is speaking. I save that comment for the very worst translations in Latin class.

Posted by Dr. Weevil at May 30, 2002 08:53 AM