50 Fun Facts About Latin Phrases and Sayings

Which Japanese sportswear brand is named from the initials of a Latin phrase meaning 'a sound mind in a sound body'?

Asics stands for 'anima sana in corpore sano'. The company grew out of a sports-shoe business that Kihachiro Onitsuka set up in Kobe in 1949, and it took its Latin name in a 1977 merger.

Which tyre company's mascot is called Bibendum, after the Latin toast 'Nunc est bibendum' on an 1898 poster?

Michelin's stacked-tyre man was drawn by the cartoonist O'Galop proposing a toast that means 'now is the time to drink'. The joke was that the tyre drinks up obstacles.

The nation of Panem in The Hunger Games is named after a Latin phrase by the satirist Juvenal meaning what?

Bread and circuses, 'panem et circenses', was Juvenal's jibe at a public kept quiet with food and entertainment. Suzanne Collins has said her dystopia's name comes straight from it.

Which action franchise subtitled its third film 'Parabellum', after the Latin adage 'Si vis pacem, para bellum'?

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum borrows an adage that means 'if you want peace, prepare for war'. The same words gave the German Parabellum pistol cartridges their name.

Which US state's one-word Latin motto, 'Excelsior', did Marvel's Stan Lee adopt as his trademark sign-off?

New York carries 'Excelsior' on a banner under its coat of arms, where it is usually translated 'ever upward'. Stan Lee ended his Marvel columns with the same word.

Which Hollywood studio's logo wraps the Latin motto 'Ars gratia artis', art for art's sake, around its mascot?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's motto circles the roaring head of Leo the Lion, yet it is shaky Latin. 'Gratia' should follow its noun, so a Roman would have written 'ars artis gratia'.

A floor mosaic reading 'Cave canem', beware of the dog, guards the House of the Tragic Poet in which Roman town?

Pompeii's mosaic dog has been warning visitors since the 1st century AD. The same phrase appears in Petronius's Satyricon, painted in large letters on a wall at Trimalchio's dinner.

Julius Caesar is said to have declared 'Alea iacta est', the die is cast, as his army crossed which river?

The Rubicon marked the edge of Caesar's province and of his legal right to command troops. Plutarch says he spoke the line in Greek, probably quoting a play by Menander.

Which Ivy League university's shield spreads its one-word Latin motto, 'Veritas', across three open books?

Harvard's 'Veritas' simply means truth. The outer band of the university seal carries a second Latin motto, 'Christo et Ecclesiae', for Christ and the Church.

The gravestone initials R.I.P., now read as English, first stood for which Latin phrase from Christian burial prayers?

Requiescat in pace means 'may he or she rest in peace', so the English wording happens to fit the same three letters. For more than one person the Latin becomes 'requiescant in pace'.

The citation shorthand 'et al.', written after the first of a paper's several authors, abbreviates Latin meaning what?

And others is the sense of 'et alii', which is why the shorthand is preferred to 'etc.' when the names left out belong to people. It can also stand for 'et alibi', and other places.

Q.E.D., which mathematicians write to end a proof, abbreviates a Latin translation of Euclid's Greek meaning what?

Which was to be demonstrated, 'quod erat demonstrandum', signals that a proof has reached the statement it set out to prove. Euclid and Archimedes closed proofs with the Greek original.

The letters N.B., written in a text to flag an important point, abbreviate Latin words meaning what?

Note well is the literal meaning of 'nota bene', an order given to one reader. Addressed to several readers at once, the Latin becomes 'notate bene'.

The verb 'ad-lib', used when a performer improvises, shortens the Latin phrase 'ad libitum', which means what?

At one's pleasure is how 'ad libitum' translates. On sheet music it hands a passage to the performer's discretion, and biologists use it to describe feeding without restriction.

What does 'status quo' mean, the Latin phrase that diplomats lengthen to 'status quo ante bellum' in peace treaties?

Existing state of affairs is what 'status quo' means. The longer form puts everything back as it stood before the fighting, as the Treaty of Ghent did after the War of 1812.

Police shorten which Latin phrase to 'M.O.' when they describe the habitual methods that a criminal uses?

Modus operandi translates roughly as 'manner of operating'. Criminal profilers study it for clues to an offender's psychology.

Lawyers who take a case without charging a fee work 'pro bono', short for a Latin phrase meaning what?

For the public good translates the full phrase, 'pro bono publico'. American Bar Association ethics rules recommend that lawyers give at least 50 hours a year to such work.

Under the Vienna Convention, a host country can expel a foreign diplomat by declaring them which Latin term?

Persona non grata brands the envoy as unwelcome. Article 9 of the convention lets a state make the declaration at any time and without having to explain its decision.

'Summa cum laude', the tier of Latin honours above 'magna cum laude', says a degree was earned in which way?

With highest praise is the top of a three-step ladder that climbs from 'cum laude' through 'magna cum laude'. Most American colleges award it with bachelor's degrees but not with a master's or a Ph.D.

'Mea culpa', now shorthand for a public apology, comes from the Confiteor, a prayer said at Mass; what does it mean?

Through my fault is how the Confiteor's Latin is put into English, and the prayer says it three times. Worshippers may beat their breast as they speak the words.

'Deus ex machina', a contrived plot rescue, recalls actors lowered by crane in Greek tragedy; what does it mean?

God from the machine is a Latin copy of a Greek stage term. More than half of Euripides's surviving tragedies end with a deity arriving to sort out the plot.

'Tabula rasa', a phrase tied to John Locke's view of the newborn mind, is usually translated into English as what?

Blank slate stands for the idea that people are born without built-in mental content. The image is a Roman wax tablet, wiped for reuse by heating the wax and smoothing it flat.

What does 'memento mori' mean, the Latin name art historians give to skulls and hourglasses placed in paintings?

Remember you must die is the gist of 'memento mori'. The philosopher Epictetus compared it to the attendants who stood behind generals at their triumphs to remind them they were mortal.

'Tempus fugit', a motto carved on sundials and on gravestones beside a winged hourglass, is usually translated how?

Time flies is a cheerful trim of a gloomier line. In Virgil's Georgics the words are 'fugit irreparabile tempus': time escapes and can never be recovered.

Which Latin aphorism from the Roman poet Horace's Odes, usually translated 'seize the day', says to enjoy the moment?

Carpe diem comes from an ode telling a woman called Leuconoe not to fret about the future. The verb is a gardener's one, closer to 'pluck the day', as you would ripe fruit.

Chaucer's Prioress wears a brooch inscribed 'Amor vincit omnia', a line adapted from Virgil's Eclogues, meaning what?

Love conquers all sits oddly on a nun, and Chaucer lists the brooch among her worldly comforts, beside her lap dogs. Virgil's line, in his tenth Eclogue, goes on to urge surrender to love.

Which English proverb translates 'Audentis Fortuna iuvat', the line Virgil gives the warrior Turnus in the Aeneid?

Fortune favours the bold has a famous casualty. Pliny the Elder, his nephew wrote, quoted a version of it as he turned his fleet towards erupting Vesuvius, and he died on the expedition.

In the Aeneid, the priest Laocoön says 'Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes', I fear Greeks bearing gifts, of which object?

The Trojan Horse got a spear in its flank from Laocoön as he gave the warning. Nobody listened, and two sea serpents then crushed him and both of his sons.

Which First World War poet used the Latin line 'Dulce et decorum est' as the title of a gas-attack poem?

Wilfred Owen borrowed a Roman verse that calls it sweet and proper to die for one's country. He sent an early draft to his mother in 1917, and the poem was published only after his death.

Which US state put 'Ad astra per aspera', to the stars through difficulties, on the Great Seal it adopted in 1861?

Kansas owes its seal to John James Ingalls, a politician from Atchison who submitted the design. The seal crowds in a rising sun, a steamboat, a ploughman and a wagon train to tell the state's history.

Which US state's motto, 'Sic semper tyrannis', did John Wilkes Booth say he shouted after shooting Abraham Lincoln?

Virginia's motto means 'thus always to tyrants'. Its seal, approved in July 1776, shows Virtue with a spear and her foot on a fallen Tyranny, whose crown lies nearby.

Which country's national motto, 'A mari usque ad mare', from sea to sea, is taken from Psalm 72 in the Latin Bible?

Canada chose a verse that promises dominion from sea to sea, a nod to the country's old name, the Dominion of Canada. The motto has sat on the national arms since 1921.

Which English king was the first to receive the Latin title 'Fidei Defensor', abbreviated F D on British coins?

Henry VIII was named Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X in 1521 for a book upholding papal supremacy. After he broke with Rome, Parliament simply conferred the title on him again in 1543.

SPQR, the abbreviation on the municipal coat of arms of Rome, pairs the Roman people with which other party?

The Senate comes first in 'Senatus Populusque Romanus', the Senate and People of Rome. The '-que' stuck to the end of 'Populus' is the Latin for 'and'.

'Aqua vitae', a medieval Latin name for spirits, lies behind the Irish word that became 'whiskey'; what does it mean?

Water of life was translated word for word into Irish as 'uisce beatha', which English wore down to whiskey. France's eau de vie and Scandinavia's akvavit are the same phrase again.

IVF, which joins egg and sperm in a laboratory, is short for 'in vitro fertilisation'; what does 'in vitro' mean?

In glass points to the test tubes, flasks and Petri dishes where such work is done. Its opposite is 'in vivo', used for studies carried out in living organisms.

An 'ad hominem' attack, a debating fault that Aristotle picked apart in his Sophistical Refutations, is Latin for what?

To the person is the literal sense. The full name, 'argumentum ad hominem', describes an argument aimed at whoever is speaking instead of at what they say.

Which Roman statesman is said to have ended every speech by demanding a rival city's ruin, 'Carthago delenda est'?

Cato the Elder tacked the demand on to speeches about quite unrelated matters. He got his wish, though not in his lifetime: the Third Punic War began in 149 BC, the year he died.

Which Roman orator cried 'O tempora, o mores!' near the start of his first speech against the conspirator Catiline?

Cicero's cry means 'oh the times, oh the customs', and he liked it enough to use it in four surviving speeches. He was consul when he delivered this one in 63 BC.

Which Roman emperor reportedly saw a vision promising 'In hoc signo vinces' before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge?

Constantine was promised victory 'in this sign', taken to be a cross or the Chi-Rho monogram. The Latin is a loose version of a Greek phrase that means 'in this, be victorious'.

Captives about to fight a mock sea battle in AD 52 hailed which emperor with 'Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant'?

Claudius is reported to have answered the doomed men with a dry 'or not'. The salute is popularly pinned on gladiators, yet it is recorded nowhere else in Roman history.

'Rara avis', rare bird, comes from a line by Juvenal likening the rarity to which bird, then presumed not to exist?

Black swan stayed a byword for the impossible until about 1697, when Dutch sailors saw the real birds living in Australia.

The proverb 'Homo homini lupus', adapted from a comedy by Plautus, says man is which animal to his fellow man?

Wolf stands for cruelty to strangers: in the play, a man is one to another man whose character he does not yet know. Thomas Hobbes later drew on the proverb in his De Cive.

Louis XIV of France had 'Ultima ratio regum', the last argument of kings, cast on which weapons of his armies?

Cannons made the point that guns settle what talks cannot. Frederick the Great copied the idea in 1742, ordering Prussian artillery inscribed 'Ultima ratio regis', the king's last resort.

Which capital's motto, 'Fluctuat nec mergitur', tossed by the waves but not sunk, was made official by Baron Haussmann?

Paris has a sailing ship on its coat of arms, a legacy of the medieval guild of water merchants who held trading rights on the Seine. Their seal of about 1210 showed a river boat.

Which Catholic order has the motto 'Ad maiorem Dei gloriam', often abbreviated AMDG?

Jesuits take the motto, 'for the greater glory of God', from their founder, Ignatius of Loyola. His full phrase carries on: 'and the salvation of humanity'.

Which German philosopher made 'Sapere aude', dare to know, the motto of the Enlightenment in an essay of 1784?

Immanuel Kant lifted the phrase from a letter by the Roman poet Horace, written some 1,800 years earlier. He read it as a call to have the courage to use your own reason.

The Romans called which sea 'Mare Nostrum', our sea, once their empire controlled every stretch of its coastline?

The Mediterranean has had its whole coast ruled by one state only that once. The name began smaller, as the Roman term for the Tyrrhenian waters after the conquest of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica.

Who speaks the words 'Ecce homo', behold the man, in the Latin Bible while presenting the scourged Jesus to a crowd?

Pontius Pilate says it in John's Gospel as Jesus stands bound and crowned with thorns. The scene became a favourite subject for painters, Caravaggio among them.

Which country's national motto, 'Plus ultra', further beyond, began as the personal motto of the emperor Charles V?

Spain's motto flips 'non plus ultra', nothing further beyond, the warning said to have been inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules at the edge of the ancient world.