Tuesday, July 31, 2007

More than meets the eye...


Growing up I used to love watching Transformers on TV, but in my youthful ignorance I never realised that many of the characters had names which were based on Latin. With the recent release of the Transformers movie (which I haven't yet seen, and probably won't) I thought it would be appropriate to share just a few of them.


Optimus Prime was of course the leader of the good guys; his name means 'the best and the first' (an optimist always assumes the best; primary school is your first school). His name echoes that of the god Jupiter who had the title optimus maximus- 'the best and the greatest'.


Rodimus Prime became leader when Optimus died. He started off as 'Hot Rod', and I assume that the creators of Transformers thought 'Rodimus' would be a good way of making his name sound a bit more serious. They probably didn't know that rodimus also means 'we gnaw/peck' in Latin.


Ultra Magnus to tell the truth I have no memory of this character, but his name means 'beyond great', so I thought I'd include him too.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a surprise! i never knew transformers was your type in your 'ignorant' past!?! haha

i havent watched it either but i heard the new movie's great!

see you on monday! :)

Anonymous said...

sir, you have to see transformers.

it is fantastic.

lie to yourself and say it is latin research. you need o fully understand the meaning of the word "optimus" by observing how optimus prime truly is "the best and the first".

also, studying for friday's exam: livy viiic -

"the flatteries of the men were added to this, excusing what they had done with desire and love, which to a woman's heart are most effective prayers."

had livy ever met a woman, sir?

Anonymous said...

i think livy's mum was a woman...

AndrewE said...

Gold.

Bumblebee?