Okay, new question

[swan_tower]

My brain is blurring out from staring at lists of Latin nouns, so I'm going to throw this a bit wider open and see what the commentariat can suggest.

In this totally hypothetical story that I'm totally not working on, there is a group of female knights under holy orders, in a secondary-world setting modeled on medieval Europe, serving the Queen of a place that will probably look like France. I want their names to form a list of the virtues they are supposed to uphold. (There is room for irony here, as they will not always live up to those names.)

What virtues would you expect to see on that list?

I need a total of twelve; suggest as many as you like. Bonus points if you can provide me with Latin nouns matching your suggestions, ending in either -tas or -ia -- I'm trying to see if I can get a satisfactory set without having to rejigger any of the Latin. (I can put together twelve on either pattern, but not without leaving out some concepts I think I'd like to include.)

Comments

[iriththedreamer.livejournal.com]

Truth-Veritas is the easy one. I've never actually studied latin so I'm not really sure of latin for the rest of these, but Justice(Aequitas?), Mercy, Honor, Fidelity, Charity, and Piety strike me as good ones. Hope that helps?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

It does help; I'm both curious to see which ideas people agree on, and which ones get suggested that I haven't thought of already.

[cepetit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

<vbeg> You could just struggle through The Faerie Queen ... naaah. I wouldn't wish that on James Fenimore Cooper.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Been there, done that, didn't even end up using any of the possible epigraphs in Midnight Never Come.

(Okay, I skimmed it rather than reading fully. And only the first three books. Still.)

[astres.livejournal.com]

Virginia XD

[astres.livejournal.com]

On a side, non-cheesy note, I LOVE the idea. I wants to steals it. :P

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

The world could always use more stories about lady knights . . . .

[lady-jade-01.livejournal.com]

Gimmie a couple of days....I'm sure my latin friends can come up with some...hehehehe

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

English will also do; I'm looking things up. It's more a question of seeing if I can come up with a set of ideas that can be made to fall within a single grammatical pattern.

[lady-jade-01.livejournal.com]

Hey, latin-geeks within the SCA...heraldry buddies...*laugh*

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you've seen Quest for Camelot, but the Virtues extolled in the opening song would be perfect. (Sadly, I am about to go to bed and in no state of mind to dig out my Latin books!)

YouTube has the song, the part you want starts at 2:25: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfjW8Lz1_g8

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[beccastareyes]

Hmm... Wisdom, Compassion, Courage, Camaraderie/Fellowship, Fealty*, Hope, Faith.

* I suppose you could combine these last two into Loyalty.

No Latin skills so I'd at most be looking stuff up in a dictionary.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Loyalty/fidelity/faith is actually the one driving me the most crazy: I can't find a Latin noun that will express anything suitable in that vein while also ending in -ia. If I could get that, I'd probably have a workable set.

[pathseeker42.livejournal.com]

fidelitas from Ben's Latin dictionary means faithfulness, trust, and (obviously) fidelity.

[pathseeker42.livejournal.com]

Or, pietas "dutifulness, dutiful conduct, piety, patriotism, devotion, kindness."

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Those two nouns top the list of "why I considered altering some nouns to end in -tas" (see previous poll). But it turns out I can get closer to my goal with -ia nouns; now I just need something that's equilvalent to fidelitas or pietas, but with the other ending. (Fidelia, sadly, is a type of earthenware vessel.)

[dynix.livejournal.com]

The girl's name Fidelia \f(i)-de-lia\ is a variant of Fidelity (Latin), and the meaning of Fidelia is "loyalty".

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Fidelia

[shadowkindrd.livejournal.com]

I'm doing something similar with virtues, so here's my list (it's not that similar, trust me. Feel free to borrow. :)

Tenacity
Defiance
Confidence
Zeal
Diligance
Glory
Allegiance
Belief
Loyalty
Integrity
Patience
Preserverence

Defiance may not work for you, but it does for me. :D

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (Now I'm curious to know what your list is for.)

[shadowkindrd.livejournal.com]

A very interesting set of immortal women, let's just say. They have bad habits of kicking ass, taking names, and there's no bubble gum available. And they're the bad guys. Sort of.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Neat!

[ckastens.livejournal.com]

As a point of reference, Ramon Llull's Book on the Order of Knighthood (ca. 1275) lists three theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) and four cardinal virtues (Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance). He also mentions in passing Chastity, Loyalty, Courage, and Humility. So there are eleven for you.
He also goes into the vices that undermine them, such as: Greed, Gluttony, Luxury, Pride, Weakness, Infidelity, etc. I can look up more of the vices if you'd like those as well, there are at least eleven of them in the book as well.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That was one of the first things I started with, yeah -- that and the Boy Scout Law. :-) I feel like I'm trying to coordinate the decorations for a room, coming up with twelve that meet my needs.

[novalis.livejournal.com]

Curiosity, Love, Honesty, Sacrifice, Humility

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Danke.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Humility, patience.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[kizmet-42.livejournal.com]

Well, Latin-less here - I took Greek, not Latin.

However:

Temperance
Charity
Faithfulness
Purity
Self-Restraint (I'm thinking the opposite of anger. Humility might work.)
Constancy
Gentleness (irony with the concept of lady knights)

Oh, and now I'm thinking "dames" instead of lady knights, which brings a whole new dynamic in, doesn't it?

Strength
Boldness
Forthrightness
Power (in Greek, that may be Dunamia or Dynamia)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Oh, and now I'm thinking "dames" instead of lady knights, which brings a whole new dynamic in, doesn't it?

Yes, yes it does. <lol>

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

"There is nothing like a lady knight" doesn't have quite the right effect, does it!

[jsbangs.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Caritas
Virtus - bonus points for irony if it's a woman! Though of course most readers won't be in on the joke.
Castitas - maybe Virginitas to make it more obvious
Fidelitas
Honos - too obscure? But the alternate form Honor is homographous with English
Spes - I love the way this sounds, but you might need to go with Sperantia for clarity
Justitia
Venia - or Misericordia or maybe Clementia

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Is sperantia actually a word? I'm not pulling it up in the Perseus dictionary search.

[jsbangs.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Not a real word, alas. But if you're fudging anyway...

You could also try Sperans, which has a nice sound.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'm trying to avoid fudging now. Otherwise I'd just chuck Fidelia onto the list and be done with it.

I don't suppose you can suggest a word ending in -ia that conveys some concept in the neighborhood of faith/duty/loyalty/friendship? About the best I've been able to do are harmonia and constantia, neither of which are quite what I want.

(Somewhere between fifteen and twenty percent of my readership would really be bugged by invention of that sort, and a lot more would be semi-seriously bugged; that's a high enough number that I'd rather do this by the book if I can.)

[jsbangs.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Amicitia?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't. The Internets are failing to tell me what the Virtues are, too. <sadface>

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Muchas gracias! (Gotta love how they put Virginity and Chastity and Abstinence in there.)

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured. (I chose "Castimonia" for my final list because it covers moral purity while also including the concept of chastity.) But it still amuses me. :-)

[unforth.livejournal.com]

I don't know latin, and don't have time to read others suggestions, so sorry if these are repetitious - here are some that come to mind:
chastity, nobility, bravery, restraint, sensibility, intelligence (or maybe scholarliness - or similar. Sorry. I'm tired. ;) )...that's all that's coming to mind. Hope any of it's helpful. I do think chastity is an important one given that it's medieval Europe, it's the first thing that came to mind. Oh, honesty is another one.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Repetition isn't a problem; it also helps to know what everybody expects to see in the list. Thanks!

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Hope, faith, charity, justice, prudence, temperence, fidelity, courage, self-restraint, chastity, honesty, piety, humility, patience, obedience, love of country, love of wisdom.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thanks.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Welcome.

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

I am not convinced that all of these are actually virtues, or appropriate, and it's a bit of a strain to get twelve, but...

iustitia
fiducia
sapientia
amicitia
constantia
intellegentia
temperantia
patientia
continentia
misericordia
oboedientia
diligentia

veritas
integritas
castitas
comitas
benignitas/liberalitas
fidelitas
honestas
hospitalitas (?)
pietas
sanitas
perspicuitas

pugnacitas (may be appropriate, but is it a virtue?)

(tenacitas is probably not a virtue - it comes close to meanness... and ditto for humilitas, which means shallowness or insignificance)