Post by Johannes PatruusPost by Gary RoachThanks for the reply. I guess "salus primoris" would be too literal?
I see three problems with that.
Firstly, "salus" has several senses, only one of which is "safety",
and in the absence of context there's no way for the reader to
understand what is intended.
Secondly, "primoris" is an adjective, whereas in "safety first" the
word "first" functions more like an adverb.
Thirdly, the whole expression "safety first", unless you mean it as a
compound adjective, as in "safety-first campaigns", is really an
exhortation, and I had tried to convey this by use of the gerundive in
my suggested translation.
If you wait around, hopefully some more suggestions will come up.
Patruus
Post by Gary RoachPost by Johannes PatruusPost by Gary RoachHow do you say "safety first" in latin?
Ante omnia sibi praecavendum est.
(Literally: Above all, one must take precautions for one's own safety.)
Would that I could have come up with something a bit snappier!
Patruus
Yes, but there's a good lesson in linguistics incorporated in what
you've written. And your Latin version is about as unambiguous as you
can get, and has all the flavour of high classical Latin.
Evertjan will go along with this. He's always urging us to look to the
meaning first.
And I guess you can't have your cake and eat it in situations like this.
Poetry is poetry, and its prime purpose is not clarity of expression. So
I pass on trying to come up with something snappier. That would just
move toward the less clear and more ambiguous side of language.
Ed