A little dose of Latin
July 15th, 2007 at 2:16 pm (Vocabulary)
Inspired by a friend’s use of Latin in signing his email, I went a-browsing for some additional interesting Latin phrases. All of Latin would make this post rather more lengthy than even my own attention span, so let’s focus on phrases that start with E. Here are some interesting new ones I learned:
Latin phrases beginning with E:
- ecce homo: “Behold the man!” (apparently a Biblical reference to Pilate giving up Jesus to the hands of the people, but I can think of several other fun uses for this one)
- eheu! fugaces labuntur anni: “Alas! Our fleeting years pass away.”
- esse quam videri: “To be, rather than to seem.” (“And have you the will to be of it?”)
- eventus stultorum magister: “Fools must be taught by experience.” (Perhaps fools “must” be, but even non-fools find experience useful. Go empiricists!)
- en nukti boule (Greek, not Latin): “In the night there is counsel; sleep on it.”
- exitus acta probat: “The result justifies the deed.” (Now there’s a dangerous one…)
(thanks to sacklunch.net for the translations)
Why phrases that start with E? Well, let’s take a look at one more, which was the phrase that inspired my browsing:
ex animo: “From the heart; sincerely.”
jim said,
July 15, 2007 at 5:43 pm
#3 is also the state motto of North Carolina :-)
One I’m very fond of:
Ex uno disce omnes (From one person learn all persons)
And from Google:
Estne tibi forte magna feles fulva et planissima? (Do you by chance happen to own a large, yellowish, very flat cat?)
Iain said,
July 15, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Last week I was reading Kepler’s entry on Wikipedia:
In Terra inest virtus, quae Lunam ciet.
“There is a force in the earth which causes the moon to move”
I like the phrasing. It is as though the ground contains a power which can move mountains; that we contain that power, whether it is called gravity, or magic.
wkiri said,
July 15, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Nice additions! Thanks for your additional examples. :)
LearningNerd said,
July 16, 2007 at 8:15 am
I didn’t know any of those! The only Latin phrases I’m familiar with are “i.e.” and “e.g.” :)
Elizabeth said,
July 19, 2007 at 6:16 pm
The law is full of delightful latin phrases, which seem mostly to be employed to keep judges from sounding stupid when they say things most people learned from their mothers by age 3. “Stare decisis” sounds better than, “We’re sticking with what we said last time.” “Quantum meruit” sounds better than “for what it’s worth.” “Solvatur ambulando” sounds better than “it will all work out in the end.” But my all-time favorite has always been “Res ipsa loquitur” – “the thing that speaks for itself.” This phrase is the court’s way of saying, “look, people, this is such an obvious one that I can’t believe we’re all here in court.” For example, if someone gets hurt on your property and it just happens to turn out that it’s because you keep a dozen ill-fed tigers in your yard, well…that’s res ipsa loquitur, my friend, and your case is mortis ab initio. It’s always tickled me that “res,” a very common word in the law, means simply “thing.” We can’t say “thing,” because we are lawyers, and no one would pay us to say “thing.” So we say “res,” because (quod erat demonstrandum) we are fancy.
wkiri said,
July 19, 2007 at 7:45 pm
I love it! These are all *fantastic* Latin tidbits. I’m still trying to puzzle out what kind of situation would lead a court to declare philosophical platitudes like “it will all work out in the end”, but perhaps this helps calm the overly riled. Do lawyers actually launch into Latin in the court, or are these things reserved for briefs and judgments? If they do speak in tongues, does anyone ever raise their hand to request an English translation?
Lips said,
August 15, 2008 at 4:25 pm
But what the hell does “Do you by chance happen to own a large, yellowish, very flat cat?” mean? Who said it first and in what situation do you use it? It’s obviously a complicated and therefore ironical way to ask someone if he own’s a lion’s skin. Which he shot himself? Irony about someone’s hunter-pose? Amazing how this quote can be found dozenfold in the internet but no one ever comments it. That’s plain stupid, quoting a quote just for quoting’s sake….