loan words of latin phrases

LOAN WORDSOF

LATIN PHRASESBy Calvin Chen & Oscar Pan & Thomas Chen

AD NAUSEAM( O R A D N A U S E U M )

Literally “until nausea”, or “to the point of nausea”Indo-European root for “to, at, until” is “At”Latin “Ad”, Hebrew “עד AhD”.“Nausea” means “seasickness”Now it is used when anything is overly done or said, becoming a tedious thing.Ex. Jeff’s hairstyle is a topic discussed ad nauseum.

ALMA MATERLiterally “nourishing mother”

Used in Rome to describe mother goddesses, Ceres or Cybele.

Original name for the University of Bologna is “Alma Mater Studiorum” or the “Nourishing Mother of Studies”.

Now used in the US as the university one had graduated from.

Ex. 蕭萬長‘ s alma mater is NCCU.

BONA FIDELiterally “good faith”.

Originally an adverb, then also used as an adjective.

Later acquired the meaning of “true”.

Ex. Calvin is a bona fide chick magnet.

CARPE DIEMOriginally part of the longer “Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero ”, literally “Seize the Day, putting as little trust as possible in the future”.

Originally meaning “what will be will be”.

Later developed into “Seize the day!”, enjoy the moment while you can!

CUM LAUDELiterally “with honor”.

Later became a title used to honor graduate students who have acquired the corresponding grade requirement.

Cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude are its various levels.

Ex. Through studying day and night, Oscar finally acquired the summa cum laude honor upon graduation.

DE FACTOLiterally “concerning fact”.

Later became “in actuality or in practice”

Opposite is “de jure”, or “in name”.

Also a legal term, which means in practice but not necessarily ordained by law.

Ex. Calvin is a de facto metrosexual.

ET CETERALiterally “and the rest”.

Loan translation from Greek “kai ta hetera”, also meaning “and other things”.

Often abbreviated into “etc.” nowadays.

Ex. There are many guys with awesome hairdos in this room, such as Oscar, Calvin, Thomas, Michael and of course Jeff, etc.

REQUIESCAT IN PACELiterally “rest in peace ”.

Started to appear on tombstones in the 8th century, and popularized in the 18th.

Associated with the Catholic doctrine in which the soul parts from body but then returns at Judgment day.

STATUS QUOLiterally “state in which”.

Commonly used as “status quo ante”, or “the state before (some event)”.

Now often associated with “maintain”, meaning to keep things as they presently are.

Ex. Calvin is in love, but he wishes to maintain the status quo, so he refrains from acting too out of line.

VICE VERSALiterally “turn around”.

Vice means “turn, change”, versa means “turn about”.

Thus “vice versa ” came to mean “the other way around”.

Ex. Calvin loves freshmen girls, and vice versa.

REFERENCES

www.memidex.com/

Oxforddictionaries.com/

www.etymonline.com/

http://en.wiktionary.org

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