At first glance, the Latin phrase Fons Sacer seems simple. Fons means spring or fountain. Sacer means sacred or holy. Put them together, and you get “Sacred Spring.”
| Context | Bad Translation | Good Translation | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | The Holy Spring | The Rite of the Sacred Spring (Ver Sacrum) | | Poetry (e.g., Horace) | Sacred Fountain | The Spring of Exile | | Ecclesiastical Latin | Holy Spring | Holy Spring (Here, it means Baptismal font) | | Etymology Paper | Sacred Spring | The Spring of Devoted Sacrifice | The Takeaway Fons Sacer is a warning for every translator: Beware of cognates. Because fons looks like "fountain" and sacer looks like "sacred," the brain wants to default to a beautiful image of clear water in a stone church. fons sacer translation
But the Roman ghosts behind the words are not singing hymns. They are hungry, exiled, and looking for land to conquer. At first glance, the Latin phrase Fons Sacer seems simple
