English → Latin
“represent” in Latin
repraesentōto show, exhibit, display; to pay immediately or on the spot; to perform immediatelyexprimōto squeeze out; to press (out); to express; to imitate or copyfingōto shape, fashion, form, knead (dough); to touch, touch gently, stroke, stroke gently, handle; to adorn, dress, arrangeeffingōto form, fashion; to represent, portray, express, depict; imitate, copy; to wipe out, wipe cleanpingōto decorate, adorn, embellish; to paint, tint or colour; to portraydēpingōto depict, to paint, to portray, to represent by painting; to paint, to colouroculuseye; sight, vision; luminary of the sun and starsagōto act, to behave; to do; to make (something that does not continue to exist after the maker stops)
The English word represent itself goes back to Latin praesēns, through repraesentō.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
represent
To depict or describe the form of a thing, repraesentare (Plin., Quint.; to set clearly before the view): exprimere: fingere: effingere (to express; of an artist): pingere: depingere (to paint): reddere et offerre alicui aliquid (of the memory): oculis, sub oculos, or sub aspectum alicujus subjicere aliquid (of persons, by description, etc.). The artist represented him in the act of sacrificing, artifex eum sacrificantem expressit.
To describe mimetically, to sustain the person of, agere. To represent an individual, alicujus partes agere: alicujus personam induere, suscipere, or gerere (either on the stage or otherwise): to represent a play, fabulam dare (☞ not fabulam docere, which means “to train the actors”).
To bring before the mind, give notice of, aliquem de aliqua re monere, or with ut or ne (to admonish): aliquem aliquid docere (to instruct): ostendere alicui aliquid (or with an accusative and infinitive): to represent to anyone the impossibility of a thing, alicui ostendere rem fieri non posse: to represent to one the benefits of a thing, aliquem docere quanta sit alicujus rei utilitas: to represent to one’s self, cogitare: animo cogitare: cogitatione sibi fingere: animo sibi effingere: animo concipere: aliquem, or aliquid oculis, or ante oculos proponere: aliquem, aliquid, sibi proponere: cogitare de aliquo or de aliqua re: ☞ repraesentare aliquid or sibi aliquem does not occur until the Silver Age.
To be in the place or act on behalf of anyone, agere aliquem or pro aliquo (☞ not se agere aliquem): gerere or sustinere alicujus personam (☞ not agere alicujus personam): vicem alicujus implere (Plin., Ep.).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for represent?
- The usual Latin words for “represent” are repraesentō, exprimō, fingō; also effingō, pingō, dēpingō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.