Illegitimi non carborundum is a
mock-Latinaphorism, often translated as "Don't let the bastards grind you down". The phrase itself has no meaning in
Latin and can only be mock-translated.
History
The phrase originated during
World War II.
LexicographerEric Partridge attributes it to British army intelligence very early in the war (using the dative plural illegitimis).[1]
The phrase was adopted by US Army General
"Vinegar" Joe Stilwell as his motto during the war, in the form Illegitimati non carborundum.[1][2][3] It was later further popularized in the US by 1964 presidential candidate
Barry Goldwater.[1]
The phrase is also used as the first line of one of the extra
dog Latin verses added in 1953 to an unofficial school song at Harvard University, "
Ten Thousand Men of Harvard". This most frequently played
fight song of the
Harvard University Band is, to some extent, a parody of more solemn school songs like "Fair Harvard thy Sons to your Jubilee Throng". The first verse is a nonsense sequence of Latin clichés:
1985 (as Nolite te Bastardes Carborundorum), the novel The Handmaid's Tale.[6] The phrase is depicted as
graffiti representing a "silent revolt" by a "slave woman in a futuristic totalitarian regime".[7]Vanity Fair called the phrase a "feminist rallying cry".[8]
1991, the final line of the chorus in the
U2 song "
Acrobat" is "Don't let the bastards grind you down".
The sentence is
Dog Latin, that is, it is a Latin–English pun with only a mock translation.
UK politician
Nigel Farage wearing a
necktie that reads Non Illegitimi Carborundum
The first word varies between illegitimi and illegitimis. Illegitimi is presumably the nominative plural of illegitimus meaning "unlawful" or "outlaw" in Latin, but interpreted as English "illegitimate" in the sense of "bastard", in this case, used as a generic insult.[11]
Illegitimis may be intended as an ablative plural, but if carborundum is intended to resemble a gerundive, it is more likely intended as a dative plural, since the gerundive takes a dative of agent. The meaning, in either case, is "by the outlaws/bastards."
The second word non is a straightforward negation.
The third word, carborundum, is an abrasive used for industrial grinding. It is not a Latin word; instead, it is a
genericized trademark[12] derived from the word
corundum, a word of
Tamil origin.[13] However, it resembles a Latin
gerundive, so can be interpreted as a hypothetical "fit to be carborere-ed" or "to be carborere-ed".[14]
If carborere (3rd conjugation) were a Latin word meaning "to grind down", Illegitimis non carborundum would be correct Latin for "(It/One) must not be ground down by the illegitimates".
There are many variants of the phrase, such as Illegitimis non carborundum, Noli illegitimi carborundum and Nil illegitimi carborundum, all of them Dog Latin. Sometimes (as in The Handmaid's Tale), carborundum is prolonged to carborundorum, as if a
Latinsecond declension neuter
genitive plural of a noun ending in -um. This is purely jocular and cannot have a grammatical meaning in Latin.
^Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (January 27, 1986).
"Books of the Times". The New York Times.
Archived from the original on August 30, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
^Travis, Tiffini A.; Hardy, Perry (2012). Skinheads: A Guide to an American Subculture. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press. p. 95.
ISBN978-0313359538.