Questions tagged [latin]
Questions about the use of Latin words and phrases in English. For questions purely about Latin, visit our sister site Latin Language Stack Exchange.
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What is the difference between “To every action” and “For every action”?
Here are two statements:
The first statement is: To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.
The second statement is: For every action there is always an equal and opposite ...
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On the origins of the use of "key" or "clavis" to refer to the keys of an organ
I'm in the middle of some research on the origins of the word "keyboard" to refer to the thing we all type on to communicate online these days. There's a clear genealogy backwards from the ...
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Why did the /ʌ/ or /ʊ/ vowel in the Latin fundāre become the /aʊ/ of foundation?
Foundation has its origins in the Latin:
OED
fundātiōn-em. < Latin fundātiōn-em, noun of action < fundāre
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What is the opposite of et seq.?
What Latin-derived abbreviation could be used in place of "and the previous ones" or "and the predecessors" i.e., the opposite of et seq.?
I can't start from the other end and use ...
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What does the word "verifactive" mean?
In Introduction to Functional Grammar, in the section on conjunction, Halliday labels the conjuncts "actually", "in fact" and "as a matter of fact" as "verifactive&...
user468388
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Why are "i.e." and "e.g." written in lower case with periods, while "NB" is typically written in CAPS with no periods?
According to my armchair research on common abbreviations of nota bene, it appears that NB is the most common now, with N.B. being more common in centuries past after taking over the "original&...
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The history of “to see say” better known as “voir dire”
Fans of the American TV show, Law & Order, may be familiar with the procedure called voir dire, whereby lawyers interrogate would-be-members of the jury in order to select jurors who will be ...
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Why did English start verbalizing Latin past participles, not keep nativizing infinitive suffixes like it used to do to French verbs? [closed]
The way English adapted French verbs used to be quite straightforward: swap the French infinitive suffixes with Middle English -en:
Latin crīdāre > Old French crier > Middle English crien (13th ...
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Is the word "serie" used in English? (as a singular of "series")
As a continental, I would normally use serie to describe a single set, and series to describe multiple sets:
I own a BWM 1 Serie, but I own a collection of 5 Series
My favourite TV serie is The ...
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rascal etymology
I use the word rascal (as in troublemaker) to describe my 7-month old daughter. My father in law (from Costa Rica) recently used the Spanish word "rascar" (rascarse) meaning to scratch, ...
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Why are "just" and "justice" written with a "j", while "language" is written with a "g", when they all come from Latin?
The word "language" comes from Latin and is written with a "g". The adjective "just" and its noun form "justice" also come from Latin. These are the only words ...
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English phrase or word to describe a scenario where people say something that is completely unrelated to the conversation or topic [duplicate]
I think the phrase I'm looking for has Latin roots. Ad... Something. But I just can't remember it for some reason. Can someone help?
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Why is semibreve commonly pronounced as ˈsɛm iˌbriv?
I am seeing this on some dictionary sites: / ˈsɛm iˌbriv, -ˌbrɛv /
But, I've only heard it (in Anglophone musical contexts) as ˈsɛm iˌbriv.
I wasn't aware about a cafe breve until yesterday. This ...
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Abbreviation for 'further information can be found'
I am looking for the formal abbreviation for something like "the further information can be found", e.g.: "lorem ipsum (the further information can be found in table 2.4)".
My ...
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The word "miracle" suggests, through common usage, a positive thing. Has it always? Or, like "awe", did it used to simply mean "momentous"?
Oxford asserts the word comes to us from Latin's miraculum, or an ‘object of wonder’, which in turn derives from mirari (‘to wonder’), itself a conjugation of mirus (‘wonderful’).
Since "wonder&...
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Ad hominem for non persons
An ad hominem argument is typically, according to Wikipedia, "a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument ...
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Pluralization of Latin origin words
I heard that words borrowed from Latin take irregular plural form. (examples: datum/data, fungus/fungi, alga/algae)
But how can we tell that whether a word (such as 'bus', 'plum', or 'idea') has Latin ...
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Why 'd' in 'Aeneid'?
The Latin poem Aeneis is Aeneid in English. How did the last d come about?
A few suspects by quick search:
/ð/ → /d/ shift in English, but there must be a shift /s/ → /ð/.
It seems romance languages ...
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Does "pig" (fat animal) come from the Latin "pinguedo" (fat)?
Does "pig" (fat animal) come from the Latin pinguedo (fat)?
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'Miscellaneous': must be followed by a plural count noun
Garner's fourth reads
Miscellaneous must be followed by a plural count noun; it does
not work with an abstract mass noun. Exceptions are set phrases such
as miscellaneous shower/income.
and
An ...
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Which one is more correct? "a plaintiff pro se" or "a pro se plaintiff"?
"Pro se" is Latin for "for self", or "for himself".
Therefore it makes more sense to me to use it in English as in "a plaintiff pro se".
However I have seen ...
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Do "elision" and "ratatouille" have unmarked plural forms?
According to Microsoft® Encarta® 2009, the word elision has an unmarked plural elision (no -s suffix) as an alternative to elisions.
Can "elision" be used as a plural form? If so, is it due ...
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Is it common to use 'terminus a quo' in academic writing?
I'm writing an academic paper and I want to replace the word 'starting point' with 'terminus a quo'. I'm not sure if this Latin word is commonly used. I'm trying to make my language more interesting ...
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The pronunciation of sciurine (pertaining to squirrels)
I am intrigued by the pronunciation for the adjective for squirrel, "sciurine".
In Wiktionary, the pronunciation in IPA is '/ˈsaɪjʊɹaɪn/' ('/ˈsʌɪjᵿrʌɪn/' in the OED online), which strikes me ...
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Correct pronunciation of "parietal lobe" from neuroanatomy [closed]
When I studied neuroanatomy at university, my tutor (who later it turns out studied Latin in school), uses a different pronunciation than other neuroscientists. I prefer his pronunciation, but which ...
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Sixth from last? pro pre ante pen ult [closed]
There is a latin sequence of terms that refer to order from last:
ultimate, last
penultimate, second from last
antepenultimate, third from last
preantepenultimate, forth from last
...
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Are "i.e." and "e.g." initialisms?
I was told that abbreviations consist of initialisms (FBI, a.k.a.†), acronyms (NATO, ), and shortened words (ad, bike).
† Thanks to Pete Kirkham for correcting me: for most people a.k.a. is an ...
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How can I keep away from latinate? [closed]
Are there resources to help me keep away from latinate when I write? Preferably, they would let me trade latinate words for older, better words.
A thesaurus might help (or better, a good dictionary ...
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Revisiting "ee.g." (versus "e.g.")
How is "e.g." pluralized?
Responses to the above article and other critiques of "ee.g." (insisting on "e.g.") roundly dismiss it as an aberration and even vilify it. Yet ...
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Neolog / prefix for use with bubble+ology [closed]
I want to coin a word that means the study of financial bubbles. After learning that Bubbleology is some kind of metropolitan tea beverage, my immediate hunch of "Bubbleology" lost a great ...
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Why does the word ‘suffix’ have a double ‘ff’ while ‘prefix’ has a single ‘f’?
While writing the word ‘suffix’, I stopped to do a spellcheck as a result of the ‘ff’. I did not do so with the word ‘prefix’ as I was comfortable with the ‘pre’ and ‘fix’. I looked up ‘ff’ vs. ‘f’ ...
user414952
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Is there an equivalent phrase to "a priori" and "a posteriori" to indicate "during"? [closed]
If a priori means "ahead of time" and a posteriori means "after the fact", is there a latin phrase to denote "during the course of the fact"?
A periori, perhaps? Or am I ...
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Early usage of Martian meaning inhabitant of Mars
Martian as an adjective meaning "of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the planet Mars" (originally in reference to astrological influence) is from the 14th century according to Etymonline;...
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When should Latinisms be Italicized? [duplicate]
Some Latinisms are usually italicized in English whereas some Latin loanwords are not, even in the same text. However, I cannot find any clear pattern. Are there clear rules or guidelines about it? ...
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When did the word "demon" (for evil spirit) come into popular usage in the English language?
The English word "demon" has been found throughout the New Testament in modern bible translations since the 19th century. However, in the 16th and 17th century and earlier (Tyndale Bible, ...
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Is there a term to describe a human who has been turned into an animal by some external force or actor?
I am compiling a database of deities, mythological creatures, fairy tale or folkloric beings, and other similar entities, complete with categorisation based on various factors. In doing so, I have ...
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Academic / formal equivalent of : there are two sides to every story
"Every coin has two sides" or "there are two sides to every story" is often over-used and may even come off as cliche-sounding. I will of course use them still if that's what I ...
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When was ad hoc introduced in English?
When was ad hoc introduced in English?
I found this, but it is only a vague speculation.
Originally, ad hoc is a Latin phrase, and it is speculated that the term was first used in English in the mid-...
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Synonyms for "impact ventilation" and "cross ventilation" of (West) Germanic roots (dead / alive / old / new)
A German "end of the year" 2020 overview of absurdities and rather funny trends mentions British "Corona talk" about the German words
Stoßlüften = impact ventilation,
Querlüften = ...
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How do Latin etymons that end in English in *-tion* nearly always name a process?
I don't think the emboldening is correct, because -ing gerunds name a process. See https://english.stackexchange.com/a/444498. -tion just names a result of that process. What do you think?
In ...
user409391
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When shortening the title of a book, should it be prefaced by a definite article?
I am writing a research paper which is concerned with Euler's book 'Introductio in analysin infinitorum'. May I refer to it as "the 'Introductio'"? And would it be wrong to simply refer to ...
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Is using the plural form (in place of the original singular) of these Latin/Greek loan words acceptable?
The following Latin/Greek singular vs. plural errors make me cringe every time:
bacterium - bacteria
criterion - criteria
millennium - millennia
phenomenon - phenomena
It's extremely typical for an ...
user399018
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About i.e. and e.g [closed]
I have four small questions about i.e. and e.g.
How do you call them, “words” or other things?
When using (writing or typing), do we usually use the italic version i.e. / e.g. or the normal version i....
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What's the "single" derivation of omni?
So we know "omni" is a prefix indicating encompassing of everything. We could say, omnidirectional for example, which is "receiving signals from or transmitting in all directions."
...
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Pro bono as italics?
I am using the words pro bono in a letter addressed to my line manager using MS Word. My query is: does pro bono needs to be typed using italics format?
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What is the Latin term for forward from a page?
In English scholarly references there is an expression meaning from this page forward, but I can't remember what it is.
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What is the accepted typography for latin phrases? [duplicate]
In an academic article, i'm using a lot of latin phrases both abbreviated (i.e., e.g., etc.) and spelt out (de facto, in situ...). I know that in certain languages, the most commonly accepted form is ...
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My family's heritage is french Canadian [closed]
I know that French is a romance language and my family's culture is Latin,
When my grandmother was alive and younger she was able to choose Latin American in the United States census,
My question is ...
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Taxonomy - how to describe something as plantlike?
So I'm writing a story that features Chimeras or hybrid creatures, and I'm wondering what I would call a plant based creature. For other things like a spider creature or bird creature I would call it ...
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Latin/Greek morpheme meaning 'fundamental'?
Is there a Latin or Greek prefix or suffix out there that can be added to a word to make it mean the fundamental from which everything is derived?
Here's an example. You've got linguistics, that is ...
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