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On 2012-08-09 14:35, Thomas Ruhm wrote:
The Vatican latin dictionary is not good. It has for the most part just descriptions in it and I think they only collected it from some of their people instead of making up something good or looking on the internet.
They did what is the Right Thing from a modern Latinist perspective: made up circumlocutions based on Classical vocabulary. In the Renaissance some people thought that Cicero's Latin could not be improved upon, and it became forbidden for Latinists to use non-Classical vocabulary, including both pre-Classical and post-Classical Vulgar or medieval coinages or loans from other languages. The only exception was proper names. Actually that was how Latin became a dead language, not mainly because it became clunky to treat any non-classical subject, but because unlike medieval Latin Renaissance and later Latin didn't develop anymore; it became frozen. Needless to say those of that mindset would care little for conlanging! /bpj