NEVER rely on Google Translate!!!Originally Posted by Jaxius._
Here is what I consider to be a better translation:
fēlīcem diem nātīvitātis (say "feh-lee-khem dee-em nah-tee-vee-tah-tiss")
It means "happy day of (a/the) birth." But it could be something that you might say to a woman as she's about to go into labour.
Here's a break down of what each word means:
- fēlīcem; (say "feh-lee-kem") accusative singular case of fēlīx (say "feh-lix"), meaning "happy," "lucky," or "blessed." The Anglophone names Felix and Felicity are derived from this word.
- diem; (say "dee-em") accusative singular case of diēs (say "dee-ess"), which means "day." "Meridiem"* means "midday," and in English we still use the Latin words for 'before midday' (ante※ meridiem = a.m.) and 'after midday' (post☆ meridiem = p.m.). And of course, many people are familiar with the Latin phrase "carpe diem" ('seize the day').
- nātīvitātis; (say "nah-tee-vee-tah-tiss") genitive singular case of nātīvitās, meaning "birth." This is just the general word for "birth," as in either a birth or the birth of someone. nātīvitātis is where English obviously gets the word "Nativity" from.
The word "Christmas" is a combination of Greek (Christ; from Χριστός) and Latin (mass; derived from the Latin word missa★. The word "Christmas" first appeared in English around the 11th-12th Centuries, some five to six hundred years after the fall of Rome. Thus Latin doesn't actually have a word for "Christmas." The nearest cultural equivalent would be sol invictus, the Roman celebration of the Unconquered Sun on December 25. Early Christians actually celebrated Christmas on the 25th of March, thus it fell close to their celebration of the Passion (forerunner to Easter), however it was moved to December when the Romans adopted Christianity (re: Constantine) and assimilated Roman religious practices. So the nearest socio-cultural equivalent to "Merry Christmas" in Latin would be FELIX DIES NATALIS SOLIS INVICTI (say "feh-lix dee-ess sol-iss in-wik-tee"), which means "happy birthday to the Unconquered Sun."
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*meridiem; (say "meh-riddee-em")
※ante; (say "un-teh")
☆post; rhymes with "lost," and not with "host."
Also note that Latin has a slightly trilled /r/, similar to what you will find in Romance languages like Italian and Spanish, and not like the 'mushed' /r/ in English (or "postalveolar approximant" if you want to get phonologically technical).
★Many languages still use the original Latin word for 'mass' (missa), including Japanese (ミッサ;missa), and the word for Christ is more closer to the Greek pronunciation (キリスト;kirisuto), although the Japanese word for "Christmas" (クリスマス;kurisumasu) is taken from English. Thus the meaning and origins of the word are not as immediately obvious in Japanese.
