Comment by atykhyy on REQ: Latin translation for HPMOR · 2023-08-16T08:06:36.110Z · LW · GW

Excuse me for necro-posting, but the declension of nouns in the second line here made me suspicious and I turned to the dictionary. Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar (1903) entry on the dative of possession* (para. 373, pp. 232-233, online at https://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/dative-possession) states that it is the one for whose sake something exists that is in the dative, e.g. Est mihi domī pater (Ecl. 3.33) -> I (dat.) have a father (nom.) at home, literally there is for me at home a father; est mihi liber -> I (dat.) have a book (nom.) EY's English meaning comes out as "neque domini defensor", whereas "neque defensori dominus" translates back to English as "no champion hath a lord".

* not really possession, as it expresses the idea of something that is there for the benefit of something else, like the Classical Chinese coverb 為.