Know thyself

[Jackanory]

Nosce te ipsum means know thyself, in Latin. . . but so does temel nosce (as in the matrix). What's the difference?

[Jarrod]

I do not speak latin, but understand spanish, italian, and a little french. I am getting this phrase tattoo'd on me, as it is something I beleive firmly in. In my research, this is what I have found: Nosce te ipsum is the proper way to say it. Nosce meaning to know, te meaning you, and ipsum reiterating the *self, but giving a feeling of the "actual self". Another way to say it is Temet Nosce. The difference here is the Te in Temet is you, and the -met tackon gives it the -self meaning. Example: egomet=myself. This literally translates Thyself know, we say Know thyself. It is more direct and less formal. Both ways mean the same thing, it just depends on how you want to say it. I found this out by using a free latin to english translator found at: http://users.erols.com/whitaker/words.htm Once you expand it, I ran the "meanings.exe", not the "words.exe" to find the meaning of temet nosce.

[Jarrod]

I would love to have someone who is fluent in Latin confirm or deny this...

[Jarrod]

There needs to be a feature that allows someone to edit their previous comments, instead of adding another post. Creative Computer Consulting, LLC www.creativecomputerconsultingllc.com

[Jackanory]

Thanyou Jarrod for your excellent response. My daughter had a tattoo of "Nosce te ipsum". Then we saw The Matrix & thought "Oh crumbs!" so it is wonderful to have it explained so fully. Thankyou very much...if I could give you more than 3 stars I would!

[Jackanory]

PS I wholeheartedly agree with you, an editing feature would be most useful.