as “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” attributed – with no further explanation – to Margaret Atwood. Knowing that the notion, associated with cod-Latin, pre-dated Atwood, I decided to look it up, and of course found lots of references to The Handmaid’s Tale, novel and series.

Now I read THT (and fell in love with Atwood’s style) but that was many (35) years ago, when it was brand-new and I was less than half my age. I confess to not having watched anything of the current series, nor re-read the book since. So the fact that the quote didn’t resonate as an artifact of THT isn’t surprising.

“Don’t let the bastards grind/wear you down” has a long and cheerful history, but more often faux-translated as “Illegitim(at)i non carborundum.” Not that it matters, since all the quasi-Latin renderings are rubbish.

All this is a’propos of nothing, BTW.

DQ

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