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Vescere bracis meis

10:17 Sep 24, 2008
Latin to English translations [Non-PRO]
Advertising / Public Relations
Latin term or phrase: Vescere bracis meis
Vescere bracis meis
Patricia


Summary of answers provided
3 +2eat my shorts
David Hollywood
4Enjoy/feed on my trousers
Joseph Brazauskas


  

Answers


2 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
eat my shorts


Explanation:
Illiud Latine dici non potest : You can't say that in Latin. Vidistine nuper imagines moventes bonas? ... Vescere bracis meis : Eat my shorts. ...
www.porkpie.demon.co.uk/slighty.htm - 11k - Cached - Similar pages

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Note added at 3 mins (2008-09-24 10:20:46 GMT)
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loads of refs for this insult ....

Latin phrase, English translation. Te futueo et caballum tuum ... Vescere bracis meis, Eat my shorts. Tu scronium es, You are a whore ...
www.kindredspirits.tk/ArsMagica/latin_curses.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
Latin SayingsA collection of latin sayings, quotes, phrases, mottoes, and anything else funny, insightful, encouraging or just ... Vescere bracis meis. (Eat my shorts.) ...
www.latinsayings.info/ - 27k - Cached - Similar pages

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Note added at 4 mins (2008-09-24 10:21:44 GMT)
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Latin Phrases. Vescere bracis meis= Eat my shorts. Lege atque lacrima= Read 'em and weep. Fac ut vivas= Get a life. Stultus est sicut stultus facit= Stupid ...
www.members.tripod.com/~Aquabrat/index.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

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Note added at 6 mins (2008-09-24 10:23:47 GMT)
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Laugh Lines’s knowledge of Latin is limited to time daydreaming in the pews (the old joke: What’s ... Vescere bracis meis. Eat my shorts. ...
laughlines.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/its-latin-to-us/ - 58k - Cached - Similar pages
Latin PhrasesQquidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur (anything said in Latin sounds .... Vescere bracis meis. Eat my shorts. Vidistine nuper imagines moventes bonas? ...
www.biopsych.net/psyhumor/latin_phrases_for_all_occasions.h... - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

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Note added at 14 mins (2008-09-24 10:31:26 GMT)
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probably meant to be humorous :)

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Note added at 15 mins (2008-09-24 10:32:14 GMT)
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and obviously "pig Latin"

David Hollywood
Local time: 12:06
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Anders Dalström: Aye caramba
21 mins
  -> gracias laddie :)
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
44 mins
  -> thanks Vicky :)
agree  Nina Storey
1 hr
  -> thanks Nina :)
disagree  Joseph Brazauskas: 'Bracae' does not mean 'shorts'.
2 hrs
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Enjoy/feed on my trousers


Explanation:
Other possible translations are: 'Enjoy my breeches' or 'Enjoy my pants' and (more literally) 'Feed on my trousers/pants' or 'Eat (subsist) on my pants/trousers'.

'Bracae' does not mean 'shorts' or 'cut-offs' but full-length trousers (cf. Virgil, Aeneis, 11.777, who styles them 'barbara tegmina crurum', 'barbarous coverings of the legs', something which cannot be predicated of shorts, which do not even cover the knees, while 'crura' may mean 'shins' as well as 'legs' but never 'knees'). They were not usually worn by Romans or Greeks but were a feature of the national dress of various 'barbarians', such as the Gauls (Suetonius, Caesar, 80), the Sarmatians (Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, 5.494), and most famously the Persians, although some fashionable Romans did don them on occasion as a novelty in early Imperial times (cf. Ovid, Tristia, 5.7.49).

What secondary meaning or double-entendre this injunction may have I will leave for others to elabourate upon.



Joseph Brazauskas
United States
Local time: 11:06
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in SpanishSpanish

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Péter Jutai: Yes, bracchae is medieval, maybe I am dealing too much with medieval texts. Thanks for you note!
18 hrs
  -> 'Breeches' derives from Old English 'brec', the plural of 'broc', while 'bracae' ('bracchae' is an inferior spelling) derives from a Gaulish word cognate with Old Irish 'broce'. And no, being an adult, I do not watch children's cartoons. ;-)
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