Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Latin term or phrase:
Mocte virtute, sic itur ao astro (Macte Virtute Sic Itur Ad Astra )
English translation:
Those who excel, thus reach the stars.
Latin term
Mocte virtute, sic itur ao astro
| 4 +4 | "Those who excel, thus reach the stars." (for correct version of term), see below |
Brigitte Albert (X)
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| 5 +2 | So to the stars we go, for doing as we ought below |
Leonardo Marcello Pignataro (X)
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| 5 +2 | A blessing, child, on thy young valour! So man scales the stars |
William Short
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Jun 5, 2006 07:35: William Short changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
PRO (3): Brigitte Albert (X), Leonardo Marcello Pignataro (X), William Short
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Proposed translations
"Those who excel, thus reach the stars." (for correct version of term), see below
Manhattan School of Music has established the Galaxy Society to recognize those individuals who have shown the foresight to remember the School in their will or other planned gift vehicle. The name of the Society comes from the School’s motto, Macte Virtute Sic Itur Ad Astra, “Those who excel, thus reach the stars."
From
adjective mactus (of the gods, thus worshipped, honoured) and noun virtus (courage, merit, excellence, high character, goodness)
Sic: = thus
Itur is the passive voice of ito, (frequently eo) itare and means: one goes. The passive voice is used to express verbal activity impersonally (Kennedy)
Perhaps another way of translating this expression could be:
"Excellence is the way to the stars."
Lewis: “hence in the phrase, macte virtute = be increased in your merit, go on in your excellence
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kaydee
: Have a look at this too: http://macte.uwinnipeg.ca/ :-)
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Thank you for that website, kaydee! :-)
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Pierre POUSSIN
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Thank you irat56.
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Olga Cartlidge
: Thank you. Nonetheless the Praesens form of Itare would be Itatur and not Itur.
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CT Lewis, Elementary Latin dictionary page 448: ito,_,_,are, freq.[eo], to go: ad cenas
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Joseph Brazauskas
: Very good, although 'itur' is the present passive indicative of 'eo', 'ire', 'i(v)i'. 'itum', not of 'ito. 'itare', which is a frequentative found verb only in comedy and informal speech.
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Thank you, Joseph.
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Alfa Trans (X)
1 day 9 hrs
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Thank you, Marju.
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So to the stars we go, for doing as we ought below
This is quite a good and metrical, rendition for this motto that is to be found on some coats of arms.
see http://www.a2zfisk.com/index-page3.html
Macte virtute was a standard formula for saying "well done! bravo!" e.g. macte virtute esto! (Honour be to you!) macti virtute estote! (Honour be to all of you!), to compliment someone.
It was a commmon formula among gladiators and fighters to greet each other in the arena, and sometimes "Macte!" is found just by itself.
Macte / Macti is the vocative (singular and plural) from "mactus" (meaning "worthy for", but the adjective has an osbscure origin and was used in sacrifices (e.g. macte hoc dape (vino) esto: be honoured with this offer (food/wine)).
Literally the sentence means: "Oh you (singular) worthy for your valour/excellence/bravery, this way one reaches the stars"
HIH
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Pierre POUSSIN
6 mins
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Joseph Brazauskas
: Elegant, as ever.
1 day 4 hrs
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Italy
Specializing in academic translation
Native in: English 
Works in: Italian to English, English to Italian, Latin to English, and 3 more.
A blessing, child, on thy young valour! So man scales the stars
ao >> ad
The phrase is a common reworking of a line of Vergil's _Aeneid_, 9.641:
macte nova virtute, puer, sic itur ad astra.
Thus translations may easily be found, to suit any taste...
John Dryden: “Advance, illustrious youth, increase in fame,
And wide from east to west extend thy name"
Theodore Williams: “Hail to thy maiden prowess, boy! This way
the starward path to dwelling-place divine."
Perhaps preferably Fairclough's Loeb translation:
"A blessing, child, on thy young valour! So man scales the stars"
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kaydee
: beautiful, all three of them; 'macte virtute!' :-))
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gratias tibi!
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Joseph Brazauskas
: Wondrous! You even quote straight from the source, not via google hits or machine translation, as some here manifestly do. I commend your solid scholarship.
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grates tibi perago!
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