Latin Translation: In service to the City and County

by Andrew
(The City and County of San Francisco )

Dear Latin Teacher,

I am trying to come up with a Latin phrase that translates the phrase "In service to the City and County" To be used in an emblem for workers of the City and County of San Francisco. Can you help?


Dear Andrew,

The difficulty here is the modern idea of a county. There are two words which may be used in modern Latin to mean county, but neither has exactly that meaning in classical Latin -- as the Romans did not have counties, exactly.

The two words are pagus and comitatus. A pagus is a district or a canton. The word comitatus has a military origin meaning a company of soldiers, the rank and file, or an escort, but it did come mean a county in modern Latin. It depends which sounds better to you!

So, you might try this phrase: In ministerio urbis et pagi Sancti Francisci.... OR In ministerio urbis et comitatus Sancti Franscisci.....

NB comitatus is a noun of the 4th declension, with the genitive singular ending in -us.

Thanks for asking a Latin teacher,

Sincerely,

John

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