Questions tagged “latin” on ELL SE

What English words derive from the latin word semper? A contributor to wiktionary.com writes that the word "semper" is the concatenation of two seperate words; sem and per. The word "sḗm" means somthing like “one”. sḗm is the root of the Latin semel. The English word for sḗmel is “once”. Cognate...

Latin language had the phrase "res publica", which, I think, means "public affair". I have recently learned that English has around 28 or maybe 29 % of both Latin and French lexis. However, as for me, omitting S in "res publica" seems to be quite strange. So why in English do we have the word "re...

If there appears no macron on a vowel, which is part of a monophthong, then how can I define whether it is a long vowel or a short vowel？Thanks.

Sometimes I was wondering why a word in English was derived from a form of a Latin word, and how the form was chosen. For example, from etymology online, I learned that ignite (v., "kindle or set on fire, cause to burn," "catch fire, begin to burn") was derived from Latin ignitus, past participle...

https://ell.stackexchange.com/a/335999/499 says A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the OED estimated the origin of English words to be as follows: French: 28.30% Latin: 28.24% Since French is a descendant of Latin and therefore strongly influenced (more than 50% of French vocabula...

Is it correct that half percentage of English vocabulary is derived from Latin vocabulary and the other half from Greek? I am reading Marriam Webster Vocabulary Builder, and Word Power Made Easy, and feel that some understanding of Latin and Greek may help me study the two books. I have found som...

Concerning the usage of “viz.” in American English, in OED we find examples with and without the comma after “viz.” when a “that”-introduced clause follows: This leads many people towards the second, more public-minded response: viz. that a life can be made meaningful by dedicating it wholly or ...

RE: The Use of Singular or Plural Verbs after "et....et" in Latin Jerome's Psalmi iuxta Hebraicum translati (#22) has this: sed et benignitas et misericordia subsequetur me omnibus diebus vitae meae "both goodness and mercy will follow (singular verb ending) me all the days of my life" I woul...

NB latin abbreviation is used everywhere in French, and present in English dictionaries and wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nota_bene , but quite often English speaking people ask me what it means. So, is it unusual or deprecated in either English or American English ? BTW, does someone ...

I was reading through Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy and I came across the Latin phrase per defectum. What does it mean? The sentence goes as follows: In Socrates, instinct becomes the critic, consciousness the creator — a monstrosity per defectum! As far as I was able to find, per defe...

I've always preferred variations of "etc" and "et cetera": "and cetera" "&c" "Cetera" is Latin and though we may borrow the Latin phrase in English, it might not be correct in formal settings to use the word alone. Is it understandable if I say "and cetera" ?

I'm looking for phrases that are in the same vein as "vice versa". Not necessarily synonyms, like "conversely", but other phrases with a similar framework and origin. They don't have to be commonly used. (If they were, I'd probably have been able to find them) To be more specific, I'm looking fo...

I've noted your conversation regarding the Latin pace, meaning "not in agreement with." Doesn't cf mean the same thing? What terms is appropriate when citing a scholar who is, in fact, in agreement with the stated argument?

Can I say "I prefer texting to talking to someone in-situ"? I feel like I heard someone say that before. But I am not able to find the source.

I know it's a latin phrase and maybe it doesn't belong here. But two of my friends are having an argument and one of my friends, who is the head of some committee said "At least try and then complain"(try becoming the head of the committee, doing my job and then complain) to my second friend who ...

Source: Historia Anglorum [...], by Henry of Huntingdon, edited by Diana E. Greenway [p 496, online English translation:] Tell me, I pray, what gain has it been to us to have been great or famous? [1.] We had no fame at all, except in God. [2.] For if we are famed now in Him, we shall still ...

Source: pp 158-159, The Cambridge Companion to Anselm, by Brian Davies, Brian Leftow What Anselm describes himself as looking for here he believed he had found when reflecting on the idea that God is "something than which nothing greater can be thought" (aliquid quo maius nihil cogitari ...

When you start a sentence with acronyms such as i.e., e.g., or similar, how do you capitalize them? "I.e., ...", or " I.E., ..."? Thanks.

This question is related to this one and this other one, both regarding the same matter but from distinct points of view. After reading the above posts I remained unsatisfied because of what I see as a restriction of the scope of the question. So let me explain how I would like to expose i...

In English, quid pro quo refers to a barter-style exchange. I'll do this for you and you'll do something for me. There is this quote from the movie The Silence of the Lambs(1991) where Dr Lecter says: [...] If I help you, Clarice, it will be "turns" with us too. Quid pro quo. I tell you thi...