Blogging Tips

Common Latin Phrases

Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes Club

Yesterday I spoke about some of the most common writing abbreviations found in English. All of these were derived from Latin so I thought it would be good to follow the post up with an article about popular phrases which were borrowed directly from the Latin language.

Latin was the foundation for many European languages including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Many words in English are derived from Latin however there are lots of words which have not been changed and can be found in just about every book or magazine.

This list is far from complete, rather a quick look at some of the most well known Latin phrases.

sic – Is the Latin word for ‘so‘ or ‘thus‘. It is usually placed within brackets and it is comment to write the phrase in italics too. It is used when you want to quote a factual error or typo to show that the mistake was made in the text being quoted and not by the writer themselves. Example : The man assured me he was from Seeatle [sic].
ad hoc – Is the Latin phrase for ‘for this‘ or ‘to this‘. Ad hoc can refer to a number of different things but it generally refers to something that has a single purpose e.g. ad hoc committee.
de facto – A Latin phrase which means ‘in fact‘, ‘in practice‘ or ‘in reality‘. It is commonly used to refer to what unofficially happens in practive. For example, General Smith was the de facto ruler of the army (i.e. this implies he was the person who called the shots!).
a cappella – Is the Latin phrase for ‘from the choir‘.
carpe diem – A Latin phrase which means ‘seize the day‘.
post mortem – A Latin phrase which means ‘After Death‘.
non sequitur – Is the Latin phrase for ‘it does not follow‘. For example : If I am in Paris I am in France but it does not follow that if I am in France I am in Parid.
Ipso facto – Is the Latin phrase for ‘by the deed itself,‘ or ‘By that very fact‘. The phrase was used by Ben Stiller in Dodgeball : ‘You work for the bank. The bank works for me. Ipso facto, I’m your boss’.
pro rata – Is the Latin phrase for ‘in proportion‘.
quid pro quo – Is the Latin phrase for ‘something for something‘. When someone says this it usually means ‘So what do I get?’.
vice versa – Is the Latin phrase for ‘the other way around‘. Example : Love teaches us about life and vice versa.
rigor mortis – Is the Latin phrase for the chemical changes that occur after death.

What’s your favourite Latin phrase or quote?

Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes Club
Posted on November 11th, 2008 and filed under Writing
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5 Responses to “Common Latin Phrases”

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Patrick Curl says:

November 11, 2008 at 3:34 pm

Actually – Post Mortem simply means After Death – not autopsy. Post means after and mortem means death. It is the word from which we derive mortuary, mortician, etc.

Sorry, I’m a stickler for Latin, and took 4 years of Latin in High School. It was my best and favorite subject.

Also Rigor Mortis isn’t the physical chemical changes after death it’s just one part of the chemical changes- it simply means Rigid or Stiff(Rigor) Death(Mortis). It is the stage of death where the body becomes stiff.

The rest are pretty close to the translations. I just wanted to clarify as someone who loves Latin. I know I’m a major geek lol.
Kevin Muldoon says:

November 11, 2008 at 4:54 pm

Not at all Patrick, I appreciate the correction. I checked a few sources for this article and they all said After Death for post mortem. I was supposed to write that it means after death but nowadays it sometimes means the autopsy.

I never did Latin at school but I do love some of the phrases (e.g. carpe diem). It’s amazing how much the language has influenced languages around the world.
Bob says:

November 12, 2008 at 12:39 am

Thanks for this fun list! I have been thinking a lot about Latin phrases (actually more specifically Latin endings of words) and how they are integrated into our daily speech. A friend of mine recently argued that the word Octopi was incorrect and that the correct ending should be Octopuses. I have a certain fondness of the word Octopi but my friend seemed insistent. I argued that Octopi was not incorrect but rather (for some reason) the Greek ending of phrases were starting to get more popular then the Latin ending. I found it very interesting and find myself still in the midsts of this argument.
ellen says:

December 10, 2008 at 9:27 am

My favorite mis quote is the alumni, alumnus, alumnae thing. The first one is the most commonly used for all of them. Is it too Geeky to still try and use them correctly?

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November 11, 2008 at 8:27 am

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