Talk:Seal of Massachusetts

message: I have a feeling this has already been argued over, but couldn't Latin 'Reipublica' be translated as either 'republic' or 'commonwealth' (or in a stretch even 'state')?  IIRC, the english word commonwealth was originally a calque of the latin-derived word republic, originally meaning public thing.  IMO, if the two translations are felt to be equal, we should choose the more applicable one, here, Commonwealth, as that is the official name in English.  Xyzzyva 20:06, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have to disagree here. The only proper translation of republicae is republic, even if the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts designates the name of the government as Commonwealth. --TimothyDexter (talk) 01:09, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: So how would you translate commonwealth from English to Latin? I don't possess a printed Latin-English-Latin dictionary, but at least this online dictionary translates Commonwealth as res publica (of which the genitive is reipublicae). --89.27.8.236 (talk) 22:19, 3 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: You can look at it another way: 'commonwealth' is already an anglicized version of 'republic'. --TimothyDexter (talk) 22:43, 3 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, and thus "Seal of the Commonwealth" is an accurate translation of "Sigillum Reipublicae", though it could be translated as "Seal of the Republic" as well. --89.27.8.236 (talk) 01:51, 4 February 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Not really. 'Republic' and 'commonwealth' have different historical meanings. I understand that Massachusetts styles itself as 'commonwealth', just as Montana styles itself as 'state', but both states have republican forms of government. What's more, as noted above, Massachusetts itself translates 'republicae' as 'of the republic'. --TimothyDexter (talk) 19:45, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

text: My Latin is very rusty (and always has been), so please correct me if I am wrong. But wouldn't Respublicae be the plural of either the nominative or the vocative cases, neither of which really make sense in the phrase? In other words, the use of the genitive is meant to show the relationship between the seal and the seal's origin (the republic); I don't think that it makes the meaning that you suggest clear. I do however think that your historical argument makes sense. I suppose we need to decide whether or not we want a literal translation (as we have now) or a more historical translation (one more in line with a Cromwellian commonwealth). I guess the question now is: was the English commonwealth translated into latin as a "republic"? This is for the moment beyond my Googling skills. --TimothyDexter (talk) 14:41, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reipublica 

message: How does a "white star with five points" ... "signify... Massachusetts' admission as the 6th US State"? 198.49.180.254 22:35, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  about the explanation for the star... 

message: There is a misspelling in the SVG file that was here: File:Seal_of_the_State_of_Massachusetts.svg. it should say "Reipublicae" it instead says "Republicae". The correct seal is Depicted here:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cismaf/mf1a.htm
I've changed the mage in the article to the old png version.
I don't have the skills to fix it. Can someone please fix it? I've already asked the original creator to no avail.
The Talking Sock talk contribs  22:34, 6 March 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Seal Depicted Here is Wrong 

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