Plaque

This is where Carlyle died.

We know 'Sc.' indicates the sculptor, but 'Delt.'?  We asked a member of the museum staff who told us it is short for 'delinxit', meaning ‘he/she designed it’ but we couldn’t confirm that so we asked our Latin consultant, David Hopkins, who said: "… there isn’t a Latin verb with past tense 'delinxit'.  (If there was, it would be from 'delingo' and it would mean 'he licked it off'!)  I can’t find a standard abbreviation 'delt.' either.  My guess would be that it is probably the same as 'del.', which is short for 'delineavit' (= 'he sketched it')."

The museum person had just misremembered the Latin word. But now we all know how to say 'he licked it off' in Latin, so well worth the investigation.

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