Latin that is still in use
🎯 Read the Latin you meet in science, law, medicine and daily English.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- et cetera (etc.) 🔊 et KEH-teh-ra and the rest Never 'ect'. Cetera is the neuter plural of ceterus, 'the remaining'.
- id est (i.e.) / exempli gratia (e.g.) 🔊 id est / ex-EM-plee GRA-tee-ah that is / for the sake of an example i.e. explains; e.g. gives an example. Knowing the Latin ends the confusion for good.
- per annum, per capita 🔊 per AN-noom, per KA-pee-ta by the year, by the head Straight out of every economics chapter.
- prima facie 🔊 PREE-ma FA-kee-eh at first appearance Law: a prima facie case is one that stands until challenged. Facies = face.
- Homo sapiens 🔊 HO-mo SA-pee-ens thinking human Every living thing has a two-word Latin name, decided by Linnaeus in 1735. Mangifera indica is the mango tree.
- in vitro / in vivo 🔊 in WEE-tro / in WEE-wo in glass / in the living Biology: in a test tube, or inside a living body.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 Why English spelling stops being random
English took its short blunt words from Old English and its long formal ones from Latin, often through French. That is why almost every idea in English has two words — one plain, one learned — and the Latin one is the formal one.
- ask (English) / enquire (Latin) · begin / commence · help / assist
- A Latin root gives a family: port (carry) → portable, transport, export, import, porter, report.
- spect (look) → inspect, respect, spectator, spectacles, suspect
- Learn twenty roots and thousands of English words explain themselves.
🌍 Among the people
India's Supreme Court still uses Latin daily: habeas corpus (you shall have the body), suo motu (on its own motion), ultra vires (beyond the powers). A student of law in India studies Latin whether or not the timetable says so.
🔁 Practise today
- Find and correct three wrong uses of i.e. and e.g. in anything you have written.
- Look up the Latin name of three plants near your home.
- Take the root 'dict' and list eight English words built on it.
