Translating the Motto of the University of Alaska Fairbanks from Latin to English
The University of Alaska Fairbank’s official translation of its motto “Ad Summum" is “To the Top." This particular motto is an excellent example of one of Latin’s more common grammatical constructions.
Summum is the singular accusative case form of the noun “summum" which means “top," “surface," or “highest point." Notice that as a neuter noun, summum has the same form for both the nominative and accusative cases, singular and plural.
The accusative case is most often associated with direct objects. Direct objects are words that receive the action of a sentence’s verb. For example, in the sentence:
Puer puellae rosam dat. (The boy is giving a rose to the girl.)
rosam is the direct object because it is the object being given to the girl (the indirect object). However, the accusative case has another common use other than as an indicator of a direct object.
“Ad" is a common Latin word which is most often translated as “to" or “toward." In contrast, “ab" means “from" or “away from." Coupled with the accusative case, “ad" forms the accusative of place to which. For example:
Caesar ad urbem ambulat. (Caesar is walking to the city.)
The University of Alaska Fairbank’s translation of “ad summum" as “to the top" not only accurately conveys the meaning of the Latin phrase, it is an exact literal translation.