SewingMom2many Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 We haven't started Latin yet but I have a question. What is the difference between Pro Deus and Pro Deo? From what I can tell they both mean "for God". I'm working on coming up with a name for our school that will be acceptable as the kids get older and using their first name initials I came up with Pro Deus Classical School. Afraid of using Latin words incorrectly since we haven't studied them yet, I did a little research and found that Deus and Deo both mean God. Can someone clue me in? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelle in MO Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Ds16 says Pro Deo would be correct. Don't ask me to repeat his explanation as to why! ;) P.S. His Latin resume: He finished Henle. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Found this explanation: "First of all I have to point out that Latin is an inflected language where every noun belongs to one of five declensions that have six cases, i.e. nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, ablative. Therefore every noun changes ending, according to its role in the phrase, and therefore every noun can be in the nominative as a subject of a sentence; in the accusative as a direct object; in the genitive, dative, ablative as an indirect object; in the vocative as a direct address to indicate the person or thing addressed. So, having said this, with regard to the noun DEUS meaning “God†which belongs to the 2nd.declension, here‘s the difference between ‘Deo’, ‘Deus’, and ‘ Dei’: -DEO can be the ablative or the dative case of DEUS. For example in the expression “Deo gratias †(Thanks be to God) or in “Gloria in excelsis Deo" ("Glory to God in the highest) DEO (to God) is a dative case, while in the phrase “In Deo confidimus†( In god we trust) DEO is an ablative, as the preposition IN takes the ablative. In short, either the ablative or the dative are the cases of an indirect object. -DEUS can be the nominative or vocative case. For example in the sentence “Deus me protegit†( “God protects meâ€) the nominative DEUS is the subject, while in “Deus, dirige me†(O God, direct me) DEUS is in the vocative which is the case used to indicate the person addressed. -DEI is the genitive case of DEUS. For example in the sentence “Fiat Voluntas Dei" ("God's Will Be Done") DEI (God's/ of God) is a genitive, which is the case indicating the person and number of the possessor ("belonging to"/ "owned byâ€) or qualifying a noun as in “Metus Deiâ€(`fear of God†in the sense that we fear God)." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SewingMom2many Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Thank you! I was hoping Pro Deus would be correct because I like the way it sounds better for a school name but I'm very glad I asked. That would be pretty embarrassing to have a school name be grammatically incorrect :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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