You’re more Roman than you know.
There are so many Latin words and phrases that have survived the last 2,000 years that it would be almost impossible for a day to go by without your using at least one.
Some of our modern measurement concepts were originally Roman.
Mile: from the Latin mille passum, which literally translated into “a thousand paces.” Each pace was reckoned as five Roman feet—which were a bit shorter than our modern feet—so the mile ended up being 5,000 Roman feet, or roughly 4,850 of our modern feet. (It changed to 5,280 in 1592 when the English Parliament related the length of the mile to furlongs.)
Inch: from the Latin uncia. An uncia was a Roman unit of length, weight, and volume and the origin of the English inch, ounce, and fluid ounce. (The abbreviation oz comes from the medieval Italian derivation of uncia, onza.)
Pound: from the Latin libra. Libra referred to balance or scales (as in the astrological sign), but it also meant the Roman unit of measure libra pondo, meaning “a pound by weight.” To complicate things, we took the word “pound” from the pondo part of the libra pondo but we abbreviate pound as lb, from the libra part. That’s also why the symbol for the British pound (as well as Italian lira) is £—an L with a line through it.
Some common phrases we can recognize easily as Latin. We know what they mean in English, but for how many of these do you know the literal translation?
alter ego: other self
cum laude: with praise
alma mater: nourishing mother. A school one has attended or from which one has graduated.
et cetera: and the others
vice versa: the positions being reversed
ad infinitum: to infinity
mea culpa: my fault
persona non grata: an unacceptable person
ad lib, from ad libitum: at one’s pleasure
de facto: of fact
im promptu: in readiness. Spontaneously
in vitro: in glass. Any biological process that occurs in the laboratory rather than in the body or a natural setting can be called in vitro.
in vivo: within the living. The two most common examples of this kind of experimentation are animal testing and clinical trials.
post mortem: after death
post partum: after childbirth
rigor mortis: stiffness of death
ad hoc: for this (purpose)
bona fide: in good faith
ex tempore: at the time (without preparation)
lingua franca: common language
prima facie: at first sight
sub poena: under penalty of
curriculum vitae: the course of one’s life. In business, a lengthened resume.
circa: around/approximately
status quo: the state in which. A current situation.
habeas corpus: That you have the body. A court order instructing that a person under arrest be brought before a judge
ceteris paribus: all things being equal
post scriptum: written later (abbreviated as P.S.)
per annum: by the year
per capita: by the person
per se: by/of/in/for itself
pro bono: for the good (of the public)
quid pro quo: something for something
audio: I hear
veto: I forbid
And let’s not forget bonus, extra, alias, extra, deficit …
How did you do?