Latin Translation of "Crazy Quilt" - Redux

  First, I extend profuse gratitude to everyone on all three groups
(rec.crafts.textiles.quilting, rec.crafts.textiles.needlework,
alt.language.latin) who gave their time, effort, and input to my
question; it was a great thread.  As tizocgringo on alt.language.latin
said:


Me too.  The discussion has now pretty much petered out on all three
groups. It ran longest on alt.language.latin, which also yielded the
best (IMHO) answer/guess.  As Nightmist so aptly put it:


This was affirmed, in a way, over in alt.language.latin by Johannes
Patruus:


That's pretty much what I was expecting:


As far as the quilt part goes, according to the site recommended by
heidi (was rabbit2b):
http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/wordsonline.html

there apparently IS a reasonably accurate Latin translation for
"quilt":
cento, centonis  N  M     3 1  M   [XXXCO]
patchwork quilt, blanket or curtain made of old garments sewn
together; rags;

It was the "crazy" part that drove everyone... well... crazy.
Rather than settling for a literal translation dealing with a state of
sanity, I opined:


But in common Latin usage, a descriptive term is indeed very likely
what would have been used.  Going back to the translation site, after
trying several adjectives to get their colloquial meanings, the two
best choices I found were:

inaequalis, inaequale, inaequalior -or -us, inaequalissimus -a -um
ADJ   [XXXBO]
uneven; unequal; not smooth/level (surface); irregular (shape); patchy/
variable

and

inordinatus, inordinata, inordinatum  ADJ   [XXXCO]
disordered, not arranged; irregular; disorderly, not legal;
occurring irregularly; in confusion; W:not in formation (troops);

Which leaves us with two candidates:
cento inaequalis  or
cento inordinatus

Patruus confirms:


For my own answer (the one I was looking for when I began this saga),
I've settled on the former - cento inaequalis - YMMV.  Another idea
that sprang from my original thought (to embroider the Latin phrase on
my crazy quilt) is to have a block with *several* or *all* of the
suggested phrases embroidered on it!  Let the peons figure THAT one
out!  8^D

If anyone's interested, I encourage you to visit the other discussion
groups and review the threads; there's a lot of interesting stuff
there, and I learned a LOT.

Dr. Smith
Oh, the pain... THE PAIN...

  Thanks for the update! Interesting stuff...

--Heidi

http://community.webshots.com/user/rabbit2b




wrote:
(snipped)

 
  Dr smith here is Linda`s  answer to your letter which i forwarded
to
her .
==================

Dear Dr. Smith, I'm a quilter and a scholar, including Latin, Virgil
and co.- just love the Georgics. Quilters, both male and female don't
have to be unlettered, or subject to weird mental states. We're just
people who use cloth, needle and thread as our closest to hand
medium.
With respect,Linda.

 
Sorry, but I have no idea what "letter" you're referring to or in what
context to put the above.