What does 'semper sit amet' mean in english?

Answer 1

If taken by itself it means "always let/may he/she/it be... may he/she/it love." There may be a misprint of the text; if there was an "ut (that, in order that)" before the "amet" then it would mean (depending on the context) "may it always be that he loves" or "may he always be, so that he may love" or something like that. Elipsis of "ut" is very uncommon in Latin, unlike English, except maybe in a few well defined cases.

It is more likely, though, that there is more text to this quote. Likely the subjunctive "amet" (either jussive or in a dependant clause) governs a clause which has "sit" as its main verb.

Compare Cicero's sentence from de FinibusBonorum et Malorum, "Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet..." which means "And surely there is no one who loves pain itself, because it is pain, (but)..." The "Amet" is right beside the "sit" because of how Latin handles subordinate clauses. In Latin, subordinate clauses can be surrounded by the main clause, which in this case would translate into English as something like "not again is there anyone who pain itself, because it is pain, loves..." The "sit" signals the end of the "because" clause. Of course depending on the rest of the quote there are other possibilities. By itself the sentence is grammatically incorrect by Classical standards.