to tell my colleague she acted like a bitch and should apoligise?

[Climbingthewalls12]

Obviously a little more tactfully. And really WIBU rather than AI.

One of my work mates has a tattoo reading something in Latin along the lines of Love always endures, followed by his daughter's birth date. It obviously means a lot to him and he like to show it off. Another colleague today said really loudly in front of everyone that the word order is technically incorrect and why would he do that as he is anal about other things etc. He was obviously very hurt by her remarks but she just kept on about how she has a degree in latin and can't believe he was so stupid.

IMO it doesn't matter, he loves it and its a bit late now isnt it so I pulled her aside, had been a part of the convo not just butting in, and said I thought she should apologise. For this I got a fair bit of shit from other peopl. But really WIBU?

It's not 'bitchy' to point out a factual inaccuracy. Especially if the person who has committed the inaccuracy pulls others up over details.

It's bitchy to attack someone for pointing out the truth. Would you be responding in the same way if the 'pedant' colleague was male? I suspect not, you'd probably be passing it off as banter or as the colleague being a bit OCD/Aspergers, not as something to be horrible to the poor woman for the rest of her life about just because she doesn't necessarily have loads of tact.

Well, frankly, I don't like the term 'bitchy' so I'll agree on a technicality, fudge.

But it is rude and insensitive to point out a factual inaccuracy in this context, where it could not possibly matter. If the tattoo were in English, and read 'Love conqueres all', I think most people would quietly realize that a mistake had been made, but would not comment on it to a bereaved father. The person who felt the need to 'correct' this (and who may in any case have been talking bollocks) was doing it to make herself look clever. There is no need.

I'm fairly sure I would feel the same way if the colleague were male. But then, I don't tend to describe people as being 'a bit OCD' on account of it being quite rude.

Also wtf has a degree in Latin? Shurely classics?

Not necessarily. I know a person who did it. At her school you had to take double science to take Ancient Greek at GCSE and she wanted to do triple. She loved Latin but wasn't terribly bothered about picking up Greek, so just took a Latin degree.

She took issue with his tattoo not being correct (in her eyes) and gobbed off about it in public to belittle him and impress everyone.
You took issue with this and took her to one side privately and told her so.
She's the bitch, not you.

She is a really nasty person.

If he was showing a design he was thinking of, then yes, absolutely point out errors.

Once it is permanently tattooed on his body, and for a reason like this, no way.

I once met a woman in a pub (classy) who had a child's portrait on her arm. I was younger then and didn't realise the likely reason for it and asked who it was. She said her DD who had died.

Did I then go on to say that it was a poorly rendered tattoo, really shoddy quality and really she'd have been better off going to X who would have done her one that didn't make her DD look all wonk?

No of course I bloody didn't and neither should this woman. It is really really mean.

'Bitch' is misogynistic.

Inflected languages, where the case defines what is done to whom, allow word order to change. I only have Latin to A Level, but thick clumps of nouns in the Aeneid - even at GCSE! - are extremely clear evidence that cases keep order even when "order" isn't kept. Russian is another fine source of evidence that word order is flexible in an inflected language.

She's doubly thick to not have noticed that her rant was incompatible for disliking the Olympics for "elitism."

Word order only matters when ambiguity could arise - so if you have two neuter plural nouns in a sentence, for example, the subject will usually precede the object for the sake of clarity. But even then, if the correct meaning can be easily inferred from the context, the word order might change.

manet is 3rd singular present indicative active of maneo; future would be manebit (can't remember who mentioned it).

At least his is just a disagreement over order.

One of my friends has a tattoo in Latin that she believes says one thing, but actually it says something completely different and makes no sense to boot.

Did I tell her? Of course not! What she thinks it says means that it is incredibly important to her, chances are few people will realise that it is wrong, so why on earth would I devastate her for something that has already been done?

The meaning for her is in what she thinks it says, so why would anyone deliberately want to destroy that? It's not hurting anyone so to do so would be smug, nasty 'I'm so clever' arsehole behaviour.

Wow. Middle should say 'It's what she thinks it means that is so incredibly important to her.'

quid in bracchio illius hominis scriptum est? valde cognoscere volo.

Your colleague sounds unpleasant.

Why was she annoyed with him in the first place? What was he being anal about?

And why did lots of people slate you for siding with him?

I'm showing my age but Life of Brian. "Peoples called Romanes, they go in the house?"

I don't think the daughter is dead? In any event there's little point telling him now. It was extremely tactless of her to mention it, but I don't see that an apology would help. Advising her that her comments were upsetting & served no purpose might make her think again tho. As Caesar said 'Puebla amat nautam'.

Sorry 'puella' not Puebla.

Fudge why does the colleague's gender matter, I would have said exactly the same thing regardless. I certainly wouldn't describe someone as being a little OCD as that's just rude. OCD can be a terrible condition and certainly not something to have the piss taken out of.

Buzzard bitch may well be misogynistic but had it been a man he would equally have been a dick head so not really an issue IMO.

My God father has "Nothing to Loose" tattoed on his arm (from when he was young, drunk and foolish) so I guess it could be worse at least people have to speak latin to ever know there might be an error.

He's anal about lots of things, could actually be a little bit OCD, as in literally, but he doesn't pick fault with other people just things he does himself.

His daughter isn't dead, had she been it would have made it a million times worse. She's just a toddler and the same age as my DD, perhaps why I understand better hpw much a child can mean to you, she has no children and never wants any.

OCD is a condition you can have. You can't be OCD, anymore than you can be "a little bit pneumonia".

OP: Maybe you are being a bit U by stating that the colleague has ridiculous morals by not buying silk and boycotting the Olympics.

I expect silk worm farms do not put creature welfare at the top of the list of priorities.
There are several campaigns against the cruelty involved in the production of down and angora.

I don't consider people who support those campains to be ridiculous.

The tattoo man's colleague was tactless and unkind. If she really HAD to mention it, she should have done it in private but honestly, why didn't she just let it go? Obviously she wanted to show off her 'Degree in Latin'! Tattoo man shouldn't worry though - very few people these days understand Latin anyway. (Oldgrandmama does - she 'did' Latin at her grammar school [smug smiley face])

I'd take him to one side on Monday and say you asked a few Latin scholars and blah blah, his tattoo is a perfectly acceptable form. But not to bother taking it up with smartarse as she'll obviously argue the toss whatever.

Even if its not.

mrsterrypratchett I thought exactly the same thing. Now don't do it again!

colleague is an arsehole

tell her she's a cvnt

Haven't read the whole thread but in Latin the word order is completely irrelevant as all meaning/relations is dealt with by conjugation and declination.