14.0424 vita(e)? who knows?

From: by way of Willard McCarty (willard@lists.village.Virginia.EDU)
Date: 10/27/00

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                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 424.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
               <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
              <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

   [1]   From:    Paul Brians <brians@mail.wsu.edu>                   (20)
         Subject: Vita or vitae?

   [2]   From:    Jascha Kessler <jaschak@earthlink.net>               (9)
         Subject: Re: 14.0417 backward-downward hypnotic search


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 09:00:28 +0100
         From: Paul Brians <brians@mail.wsu.edu>
         Subject: Vita or vitae?

I hope the members of this list will help me with a Latin question that is
only distantly connected with computing. I run a site called "Common Errors
in English" <http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/> which generates a lot of
e-mail. Lately I've received two queries about "vitae." Some people seem to
be insisting on this form rather than "vita" to denote a resume.

My analysis is that the original phrase was "curriculum vitae" ("course of
one's life"), with the -ae ending indicating the genitive. But when "vitae"
stands alone the ending instead suggests a misleading plural, so the proper
term is "vita" (unless, of course, one intends to claim to one's credit
achievements from earlier incarnations).

I don't know whether the people insisting on "vitae" think "curriculum" is
"understood" or just don't understand that the -ae ending has two different
functions here in Latin.

What's your view?
-- 
Paul Brians, Department of English
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-5020
brians@wsu.edu
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians




--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 09:08:41 +0100
         From: Jascha Kessler <jaschak@earthlink.net>
         Subject: Re: 14.0417 backward-downward hypnotic search

Question: Who is it who "knows" what is to be learned, and even completely
"known"?
   Jascha Kessler
   Professor of English & Modern Literature, UCLA
   Telephone: (310) 393-4648  (9:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. PST)
   Fax: (360) 838-8589/VoiceMail 24 hours (360) 838-8589

   http://www.english.ucla.edu/jkessler/
   http://www.xlibris.com
   http://jaschakessler.homestead.com/
   http://www.mcphersonco.com

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