Some famous Latin phrases explained:

  • e.g. stands for exempli gratia and means “for example” (example sentence: The Summer Olympics is composed of a variety of sports, e.g., gymnastics, swimming, and tennis.)
  • i.e. stands for id est and means “’that is”. (example sentence: Only one city, i.e., London, has hosted the Summer Olympics three times
  • etc stands for Et cetera and means “and other similar things”.
  • Ad hoc means “for this (purpose)”. It describes something that is not planned, but done only when it’s needed.
  • Status quo means “The existing state (of affairs)”. Mainly used with regard to social or political issues.
  • Per se means “By itself or in itself”. Used to describe or talk about something on its own, rather than in connection with other things.
  • De facto means “in fact”.
  • Ante meridiem / Post meridiem translates to “Before midday / after midday”. We nowadays use am and pm in clocks.
  • AD stands for “Anno Domini” and translates to “In the Year of the Lord”. We nowadays use it to refer to specific dates/years. Used alongside BC which stands for “Before Christ”. In recent years, some have proposed using “BCE” (“Before Common Era”) and “CE” (“Common Era”) instead of BC and AD to make the system more inclusive and to avoid religious connotations).
  • Eo Ipso or Ipso Facto translates to “by the fact itself”. It’s a substitution for “therefore”. Example sentance: “If everyone in the office is sick, there is ipso facto a virus going around”
    • An ‘ipso facto’ clause is a contractual provision that triggers a right to terminate or modify the operation of a contract simply because the counterparty becomes insolvent or specified insolvency related events occur affecting the counterparty, even if there has been no breach of the contract.
  • ibid stands for ibidem which translate to “in the same place” or “the same as above” (roughtly “the aforementioned”). It is an abbreviation used in citations to direct the reader to a source that was previously cited.

Legal phrases:

  • ex rel stands for ex relatione and means “on behalf of”, “for the use of”, “on the relation of” and similar expressions. (legal terminology)
  • quid pro quo means “something for something”. It describes an agreement between two or more parties in which there is a reciprocal exchange of goods or services. (legal terminology)

Sayings:

  • Veni, vidi, vici. means “I came, I saw, I conquered.”. Said by Julius Caesar in a message he supposedly sent to the Roman Senate to describe his swift, conclusive victory against King Pharnaces II of Pontus near Zela in 47 BC.
  • Carpe diem. — Seize the day. Horace said this around 0-100 BCE. It’s Latin for YOLO.
  • Carpe vinum. — Seize the wine.
  • Cogito, ergo sum. — I think, therefore I am.
  • In vino veritas. — In wine, there is truth.
  • Et tu, Brute? — “And you, Brutus?”
  • Acta, non verba. — Deeds, not words. (res, non verba)
  • Barba non facit philosophum. — A beard doesn’t make one a philosopher.
  • Audentes fortuna iuvat. — Fortune favors the bold.
  • Audere est faucere. - To dare is to do.
  • Memento vivere. — Remember to live.
  • Memento mori. — Remember you must die
  • Amor fati. — love of fate
  • Si vis amari ama. — If you want to be loved, love. (seneca, letter 6)
  • Aut Caesar aut nihil. — Either Caesar or nothing. (all or nothing)
  • Ita vero. — Thus indeed. (Romans didn’t use “yes”. )
  • Plenus venter non studet libenter. — A full belly does not like studying.
  • Pecunia non olet. — Money don’t smell. (According to Suetonius, when to Roman emperor Vespasian imposed a urine tax, his son Titus complained of the money’s disgusting nature. the urine collected from Rome’s public urinals was sold as an ingredient for multiple chemical processes. So no, the people of Rome didn’t pay a tax to urinate. Instead, the buyers of the urine did. Vespasian’s answer to his son was to hold up a gold coin and ask whether it smelled.)
  • Nemo saltat sobrius. — Nobody dances sober. (Cicero)
  • Mulgere hircum. — To milk a male goat. (attempting the impossible)
  • Cui bono? — Good for whom? (Who benefits)
  • Magna est vis consuetudinis. — Great is the power of habit.
  • Suum cuique. — To each his own.
  • Calamus gladio fortior. — The pen is mightier than the sword.
  • Ad meliora. — Towards better things.
  • “Το γάρ έαρ ούτε μία χελιδών ποιεί ούτε μία ημέρα” - Αριστοτέλης. Η μετάφραση είναι “Την άνοιξη ούτε ένα χελιδόνι την κάνει ούτε μία μέρα”, ενώ στα νέα ελληνικά λέμε “Ένα χελιδόνι δεν φέρνει την άνοιξη”. In Latin, “Una hirundo non facit ver”. In English, One swallow does not make a summer. It means that a single instance of something doesn’t indicate a trend.
  • Hodie mihi, cras tibi. - Today it’s me, tomorrow it will be you.
  • Amor vincit omnia. - Love conquers all.
  • a posteriori - tranlsates to “from the latter”. it means “Based on observation”, i. e., empirical evidence. the reverse of a priori.
  • a priori - translate to “from the former”. Presupposed independent of experience; the reverse of a posteriori. Used in mathematics and logic to denote something that is known or postulated before a proof has been carried out. In philosophy, used to denote something is supposed without empirical evidence. In everyday speech, it denotes something occurring or being known before the event.
  • Alter Ego - tranlsates to “The other I”. The term was coined in the 20th century, when psychologists discovered dissociative identity disorder.
  • Errare humanum est - To err is human. The author credited with this famous statement is Cicero, a Roman politician and lawyer. The full sentence, “errare humanum est, sed perseverare autem diabolicum” translates to “anyone can err, but only the fool persists in his fault”.
  • Vincit qui se vincit. - He conquers who conquers himself.
  • Non ducor, duco. - I am not led, I lead.
  • Astra inclinant, sed non obligant. - The stars incline us, they do not bind us. It’s essentially an one-line refutation of fatalism (the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable). The phrase means that while fate — whether determined by the stars, the gods or something else entirely — might nudge us in a certain direction, we are never forced in it. Free will exists, and the decision of what to do in any circumstance is ultimately our own.
  • ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς - Aut cum scuto aut in scuto. - Either with shield or on shield. Essentially it means to not surrender, never give up.
  • Gladiator in arena consilium capit. - The gladiator is formulating his plan in the arena. - This one comes to us from the philosopher, statesman and dramatist Seneca the Younger in Letter 22. Put simply, there are situtations
  • Vita sine litteris mors - ‘Life without learning [is] death’ - from Seneca’s Letter 82 (originally Otium sine litteris mors, ‘Leisure without learning [is] death’)
  • Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt - ‘The fates lead the willing and drag the unwilling’ - from Seneca’s Letter 117, attributed to the Greek Stoic philosopher Cleanthes (also and boxer and successor to Zeno of Citium as the second head of the Stoic school in Athens)
  • non scholae sed vitae (discimus) - “We do not learn for school, but for life”. - originally in Seneca’s Letter 106
  • Sine qua non - “without which not”. It refers to a key critical component or aspect of a larger whole. Without this piece, the whole is nothing. Example sentance: “Patience is sine qua non for this role”.
    • A necessary condition is a condition that must be present for an event to occur.
    • A sufficient condition is a condition or set of conditions that will produce the event.
    • “If P then Q”, Q is necessary for P (because the truth of Q is guaranteed by the truth of P) and P is sufficient for Q (because P being true always implies that Q is true, but P not being true does not always imply that Q is not true).
  • Lorem ipsum is a placeholder text commonly used to demonstrate the visual form of a document. The Lorem ipsum text is typically a corrupted version of De finibus bonorum et malorum, a 1st-century BC text by the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero, with words altered, added, and removed to make it nonsensical and improper Latin. The first two words themselves are a truncation of dolorem ipsum (“pain itself”).
  • Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc translate to “After this, therefore because of this”. A logical fallacy where you inaccurately assume that because something happened first, it caused the second.
  • Q.E.D. stands for “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” which roughly translates to “the conclusions is exactly as I had predicted or set out to prove”. It is a big exclamation point to saying you have proved your argument.
  • Ad Hominem translates to “To the man” or “At the man”. An ad hominem attack (or fallacy) is the process of criticizing the person, instead of their ideas in a debate, in an attempt win the argument. Example of an ad hominem attack: “Why should we listen to the ideas of someone who didn’t graduate from the Ivy League?”
  • Dum spiro, spero tranlsates to “While I breathe, I hope” and expresses persistent hope
  • Tempus fugit tranlsates to “Time flies” and it’s an acknowledgment of the swift passage of time.
  • Aurea mediocritas translates to “The golden mean” and advocates for a balanced and moderate life.
  • Nosce te ipsum translates to “Know thyself” and is used to emphasise self-awareness and understanding
  • Mens sana in corpore sano translates to “A healthy mind in a healthy body” and it’s the idea that promotes physical and mental well-being. Originally greek “νους υγιης σωματι υγιει”.
  • Deus ex machina translates to “God from the machine” and is used when an unexpected intervention resolves a situation.
  • habeas corpus translates to “That you have the body” and is used usually in legal context. It’s a writ (a form of written command in the name of a court or other legal authority) requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.
  • Veto translates to “I forbid” and is used usually in political context. It denotes opposition to a decision (exercise a veto against a decision or proposal). Usually if even one party in a group exercises veto to a proposed plan/solution/decision, then it cannot go forward.
  • Panem et circenses translates to “Bread and circuses” and refers to superficial appeasement. It is attributed to Juvenal (poems Satires: Satire X), a Roman poet active around 100 AD.
  • Sub Rosa translates to “under the rose” and means “private or secret” because from the Middle Ages (and with roots in Greek Mythology) a rose was suspended from the ceiling and what was said under the rose was secret (It is a way to denote that the conversation is private and confidential).
  • Ceteris paribus translates to “All other things being equal”. Mainly used in economics to indicate the effect one economic variable has on another, provided all other variables remain the same.
  • caveat emptor and caveat venditor are two opposite concepts that translate to “buyer beware” and “seller beware”. The first one expresses a buyer’s responsibility for due diligence before purchase. It is a short form of “Caveat emptor, quia ignorare non debuit quod jus alienum emit” which translates to “Let a purchaser beware, for he ought not to be ignorant of the nature of the property which he is buying from another party”, i.e. the buyer should assure himself that the product is good and that the seller had the right to sell it, as opposed to receiving stolen property. The second one expresses that the seller bears responsibility for protecting the customer/buyer (for any problems the service or product has).
  • Semper fidelis translates to “always faithful”.
  • Semper paratus translates to “always prepared”.
  • Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim translates to “Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you.” (From Ovid, Amores, Book III, Elegy XI)
  • Nulius in verba translates to “take nobody’s word for it”. It encourages to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment The phrase comes from Horace’s Epistle to his benefactor Maecenas. It’s the motto of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge.
  • Mea culpa translates to “through my fault”. It comes from a prayer of confession in the Catholic Church. It’s an exclamation of apology or remorse. It express acknowledgement of a faulty action and is equivelant to “It was my fault” or “I apologize”.

    this reminds me of the The Responsibility/Fault Fallacy. The bottom line is “often in life something is not your fault but you still have the responsibility to solve it”.

  • Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta translates to “He who excuses himself, accuses himself” or “Unsolicited (volurnatry, given without being asked for) excuse, manifest accusation”. The meaning of this phrase is: if one has nothing to justify themselves for, they should not apologize at all. Struggling to justify one’s own actions without being solicited can be considered as an indication that one has something to hide, even if the person is in fact innocent.
  • inter alia translates to “among other things”.
  • Solvitur ambulando translates to “it is solved by walking” referring to an anecdotal, practical solution to the seemingly complex philosophical problem of Achilles Paradox.

It’s worth mentioning the Latin numerical system: Latin Numerals.

More:

  • fiat means “let it be done”. It expresses an arbitrary or authoritative command or order to do something.
  • fiat justitia ruat caelum means “let justice be done though the heavens fall”. The maxim signifies the belief that justice must be realized regardless of consequences.

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