I love Latin. I did not go to a school which taught Latin, but before I went to university I was afraid that my privately-educated soon-to-be-classmates would be able to make complicated jokes in Latin or Ancient Greek, and so in the summer before I started I tried to teach myself Latin and Greek. I didn’t make a huge deal of progress, and when I started university I discovered that my privately-educated classmates… weren’t the people I thought they would be, but the experience was hugely rewarding for its own sake.
An enormous quantity of English words come from Latin, either directly or indirectly, usually through French. I do not have the space here to give a full treatment to Latin’s influence on English, but I will take Word of the Week in a slightly different direction this week, and describe some of the most common Latin words that appear in modern English. Against the advice of George Orwell, I love to drop a gratuitous Latin expression into daily conversation, becoming exactly the sort of pretentious person I was so afraid of encountering at university…
A priori / A posteriori - ‘From the former’ and ‘from the latter’, respectively. Often used in mathematics and philosophy. ‘A priori knowledge’, for example, is knowledge that can be gained without experience of experimentation.
Ad hoc - ‘To this’. Used as an adjective to refer to something that is done or created for a specific purpose, such as an ad hoc meeting, as opposed to a regular, scheduled meeting.
Ad hominem - ‘To the man’ - When arguing or debating, an ad hominem argument is one that attacks the person making the point, rather than the substance of the point itself.
Ad infinitum - ‘To infinity’. If something continues ‘ad infinitum’, it goes on forever.
Ad lib(itum) - ‘To one’s pleasure’. Originally musical notation instructing the musician to use their judgement in how to play a particular piece or section, the phrase is now used as a verb meaning ‘to do something without preparation’.
Alibi - ‘Elsewhere’. So frequent in English that it might not register as being from Latin. Used in a legal context to refer to evidence that someone was not at the scene of a crime. Any true crime podcast fan should be familiar.
Alma mater - ‘Nurturing mother’. ‘Alma’ is used to describe Ancient Roman fertility goddesses, and ‘alma mater’ was used to refer to one’s university from the 1700s. Universities are supposed to nourish intellectual curiosity, I suppose…
Alter ego - ‘another I’. Originally used in Roman sources to refer to someone to whom you were so close that they felt like an extension of yourself, the word now takes on a slightly different meaning, referring to a hidden self or a double.
Anno Domini - ‘In the year of the lord’. Usually abbreviated to AD, one of the most common Latin initialisms around.
Ante bellum - ‘Before the war’. Rare on this side of the atlantic, but common in the US, usually seen as one word (‘antebellum’) and referring specifically to the time before the American Civil War.
Ante meridiem / Post meridiem - ‘Before Noon’ and ‘After noon’. Usually abbreviated to AM and PM. Self explanatory.
Bona fide - ‘In good faith’. Used adjectivally to mean ‘genuine’ or ‘authentic’. Sometimes used nominally in the form ‘bona fides’ (which should be ‘bones fidebus’ but let’s not split hairs) to refer to someone’s real motives or intentions.
Carpe diem - Usually translated as ‘seize the day’, but ‘pluck the day’ might be a closer rendering of the Latin word ‘carpere’. An exhortation to remind people to make the most of the time given, and live for today.
Casus belli - ‘Cause of war’. An event or act used to justify a war. Used metaphorically to describe anything that sets off any sort of quarrel or dispute, from wars down to spats in the workplace. Like when your colleague sends you a Teams message containing ‘Hi.’ and nothing else.
Caveat emptor - ‘(Let the) buyer beware’. Used in (historical) legal jargon to warn that it is the responsibility of the purchaser to ensure that the goods they buy are up to scratch. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 put paid to this idea.
Cogito, ergo sum - ‘I think, therefore I am’. French philosopher René Descartes tried to throw away everything he knew about everything and recreate his worldview from the bottom up. He started with ‘I think, therefore I am’, meaning that if there was a self to think about existence, that self must itself exist. A good example of ‘a priori knowledge’ (see above).
Confer - ‘Compare’. Frequently seen in texts, abbreviated as ‘cf’ and instructing the reader to compare one point with something else.
Cui bono? - ‘Who benefits?’. Great for when you’re trying to figure out some obscure change in company policy. Who benefits from this? Usually used legally to try to find out who benefits from some unwelcome event, like someone else’s death.
Curriculum vitae - ‘Course of life’. Self explanatory.
De facto - ‘By deed’. Used adjectivally to describe the state of affairs as it actually stands. As opposed to ‘de jure’ (‘by law’).
Deus ex machina - ‘God from (a) machine’. Originally something of a gimmick or a trope from Ancient Greek theatre, wherein a God would appear and sort everything out. Usually used nowadays to describe a contrived plot device used by writers or producers to get themselves out of a corner they’ve written themselves into.
Equis ne credite - ‘Do not trust horses’. Self explanatory.
Errare humanum est - ‘To err is human’. Nobody really knows where this comes from, but I find the most interesting part is the second, oft forgotten clause - ‘sed perserverare autem diabolicum’, ‘to persevere (in making mistakes) is diabolical.’
Et cetera - ‘And other things’. Self explanatory.
Habeas corpus - ‘You have the body’. A legal principle designed to defend against wrongful imprisonment. In several legal jurisdictions, someone who believes they have been wrongly imprisoned can apply for a writ of habeas corpus.
Ipse dixit - ‘He said it’. Back to debating, an ipse dixit is an appeal to authority. Used metaphorically to refer to a dogmatic assertion that is not supported by any proof.
Magnum opus - ‘Great work’. Usually an artist's greatest work.
Mea culpa - ‘My fault’. An admission of guilt.
Memento mori - ‘Remember you will die’. A motif frequently found in mediaeval art, like a skull, used to remind the wealthy and vain patrons who were having their portrait painted that they were mortal like anyone else. The best example is in The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein.
Mutatis mutandis - ‘With the appropriate changes’. Fun to say, if not the most common of expressions.
Non sequitur - ‘It does not follow’. A comment that doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t follow from what came before (rather than being inherently nonsensical).
Per se - ‘Through itself’. Extremely common in modern English, could be translated to ‘in and of itself’ or ‘intrinsically’.
Persona non grata - ‘Person not pleasing’. An unwelcome, undesirable or otherwise unwanted person.
Pons asinorum - ‘Donkey’s bridge’. A problem that stupid people find hard to solve, and therefore used to separate people into those who can [do whatever] and those who cannot. Originally used to refer to a specific chapter in Euclid's Elements of Geometry.
Quid pro quo - ‘What for what’. Something you get in return for something else. Often has a negative connotation - think bribes or other underhanded dealings.
Rem acu tetigisti - ‘You have touched the point with a needle’. Ie, you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Res publica - ‘pertaining to the public’. Origin of the modern word ‘republic’ and its derivatives.
Sic - ‘thus’. Often seen when quoting somebody else, stating that the quoted material appears exactly as it did in the original. Ie ‘the person I quoted made the typo, not me!’
Sine qua non - ‘Without which not’. A prerequisite for something. Speaking Latin is not, it turns out, a sine qua non of going to university (at least not any more).
Status quo - ‘the state in which’. Self explanatory.
Verbatim - ‘word for word’. Self explanatory.
Vice versa - ‘with position turned’. Apparently the classical Latin pronunciation would be Wee-kay wersuh, so that’s fun.
Vox pop(uli) - ‘voice of the people’. Usually used in media contexts to refer to an ad hoc (see? Useful already), unplanned interview with a member of the public.
There are, of course, thousands more. The Wikipedia page makes for interesting reading if you’re into that sort of thing (which I very much am). I skipped over most of the complicated medical and legal nonsense, and the mottos of tiny universities in the middle of nowhere, USA.
What did I miss? Do you have a favourite that wasn’t included here?