There are moments in a conversation when ordinary words are no longer enough, or they seem inconspicuous in front of the deep meaning that you want to convey, and then winged sayings come to the rescue - Latin of them are the most significant in terms of strength of thought and conciseness.
Latin is alive
A great many words and phrases in different languages of the world are borrowed from Latin. They are so deeply rooted that they are used all the time.
For example, the well-known aqua (water), alibi (proof of innocence), index (pointer), veto (ban), persona non grata (a person whom they did not want to see and did not expect), alter Ego (my second I), alma mater (mother-nurse), capre dyem (seize the moment), as well as the well-known postscript (P. S.), used as a postscript to the main text, and a priori (relying on experience and faith).
Based on the frequency of use of these words, it is too early to say that the Latin language has died a long time ago. It will live on in Latin sayings, words and aphorisms for a long time to come.
The most famous sayings
Small list of the most popularLatin expressions, known to many lovers of works on history and philosophical conversations over a cup of tea. Many of them are almost native in terms of frequency of use:
Dum spiro, spero. - While I breathe I hope. This phrase is first found in Cicero's Letters and also in Seneca.
De mortus out bene, out nihil. - About the dead is good, or nothing. Chilo is believed to have used the phrase as early as the fourth century BC.
Vox populi, vox Dia. - The voice of the people is the voice of God. A phrase that sounded in the poem of Hesiod, but for some reason it is attributed to the historian William of Malmesbury, which is fundamentally erroneous. In the modern world, the movie "V for Vendetta" brought fame to this saying.
Memento mori. - Memento Mori. This expression was once used as a greeting by Trapist monks.
Nota bene! - A call to pay attention. Often written in the margins of the texts of great philosophers.
Oh tempora, oh mores! “Oh times, oh manners. from Cicero's Oration Against Catiline.
After the fact. – Often used to refer to an action after a fait accompli.
About this counter. – For and against.
In bono veritas (in bono veritas). - Truth is good.
Volens, nolens. - Willy-nilly. It can also be translated as "whether you want it or not"
Truth in wine
One of the most famous Latin sayings sounds like "in vino veritas", in which the truth is veritas, in vino - the wine itself. This is a favorite expression of people who often take a glass, suchin a cunning way they justify their craving for alcohol. Authorship is attributed to the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, who died during the eruption of Vesuvius. At the same time, its authentic version sounds a little different: “The truth has drowned in wine more than once,” and the implication is that a drunk person is always more truthful than a sober one. The great thinker was often quoted in his works by the poet Blok (in the poem "The Stranger"), the writer Dostoevsky in the novel "The Teenager" and some other authors. Some historians argue that the authorship of this Latin proverb belongs to a completely different Greek poet Alcaeus. There is also a similar Russian proverb: “What a sober man has on his mind, a drunkard has on his tongue.”
Bible quotes translated from Latin into Russian
Many of the idioms used now are taken from the greatest book of the world and are grains of great wisdom, passing from century to century.
He who does not work does not eat (from the second epistle of the Apostle Paul). Russian analogue: who does not work, he does not eat. The meaning and sound are almost identical.
Let this cup pass me by. - This is taken from the Gospel of Matthew. And from the same source - A student is not higher than his teacher.
Remember that you are dust. - Taken from the book of Genesis, this phrase reminds everyone who is proud of their greatness that all people are made of the same "dough".
Abyss calls to abyss (Ps alter.) The phrase in Russian has an analogue: trouble does not come alone.
Do what you have planned (Gospel of John). - These are the words spoken by Jesus to Judas beforebetrayal.
Phrases for every day
Latin sayings with transcription in Russian (for easier reading and memorization) can be used in ordinary conversation, decorating your speech with wise aphorisms, giving it a special poignancy and uniqueness. Many of them are also familiar to most:
Dees dim dots. Every previous day teaches a new one. Authorship is attributed to Publilius Cyrus, who lived in the first century BC.
Ektse homo! - Se Man! The expression is taken from the Gospel of John, the words of Pontius Pilate about Jesus Christ.
Elefantem ex muska facis. – You make an elephant out of a fly.
Errare humanum est. – To err is human (this is also the words of Cicero)..
Essay kvam videri. – To be, not to seem.
Ex anime. – From the bottom of my heart, from the heart.
Exitus of the act of probat. – The result justifies the means (action, act, deed).
Search for someone who benefits
Qui bono and quid prodest. – The words of the Roman consul, who was often quoted by Cicero, who in turn is widely quoted by detectives in modern films: “Who benefits, or look for who benefits”.
Researchers of ancient treatises on history believe that these words belong to the lawyer Cassian Raville, who in the first century of our century investigated the crime and addressed the judges with these words.
Words of Cicero
Mark Tullius Cicero - the great ancient Roman orator and politician who played a leading role in exposing the Catiline conspiracy. He was executed, but many sayings of the thinker are longtime continues to live among us, like Latin sayings, but few people know that it is he who owns the authorship.
For example, well-known:
Ab igne ignam. – Fire from the fire (Russian: from the fire and into the frying pan).
A true friend is known in a wrong deed (in a treatise on friendship)
To live is to think (Vivere eats coguitar).
Either let him drink or leave (out bibat, out abeat) - a phrase often used at Roman feasts. In the modern world, it has an analogue: they don’t go to someone else’s barracks with their charter.
Habit is second nature (treatise "On the Highest Good"). This statement was also picked up by the poet Pushkin:
The habit from above is given to us…
The letter does not blush (epistula non erubescite). From a letter from Cicero to the Roman historian, in which he expressed his satisfaction that he could express much more on paper than in words.
Everyone errs, but only a fool persists. Taken from "Philippika"
About love
This subsection contains Latin sayings (with translation) about the highest feeling - love. Reflecting on their deep meaning, one can trace the thread connecting all times: Trahit sua quemque voluptas.
Love is not cured by herbs. Ovid's words, later paraphrased by Alexander Pushkin:
The disease of love is incurable.
Femina nihil pestilentius. “There is nothing more destructive than a woman. Words belonging to the great Homer.
Amor omnibus let's go. - Part of Virgil's saying, "loveone for all." There is another variation: all ages are submissive to love.
Old love must be beaten out with love, like a stake with a stake. Cicero's words.
Analogues of Latin and Russian expressions
So many Latin sayings have the same meaning as proverbs in our culture.
Eagle doesn't catch flies. - Each bird has its own pole. It hints that you need to adhere to your moral principles and rules of life, not falling below your level.
Too much food interferes with the sharpness of the mind. - The words of the philosopher Seneca, which have a related proverb among Russians: a well-fed belly is deaf to science. Perhaps that is why many great thinkers lived in poverty and hunger.
There is no silver lining. Absolutely identical there is a saying in our country. Or maybe some Russian fellow borrowed it from the Latins, and since then it has become a custom?
What a king - such is the crowd. Analogue - what is the pop, such is the parish. And about the same thing: it is not the place that makes the person, but the person the place.
What is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull. About the same thing: to Caesar - Caesar's.
Who has done half the work - has already begun (they attribute to Horace: "Dimidium facti, quitsopit, habet"). With the same meaning, Plato has: “The beginning is half the battle”, as well as the old Russian saying: “A good beginning has pumped out half the battle.”
Patrie Fumus igne Alieno Luculentior. - The smoke of the fatherland is brighter than the fire of a foreign land (Russian - The smoke of the fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us).
Mottoes of great people
Latin sayings were also used as the mottos of famouspeople, communities and brotherhoods. For example, "to the eternal glory of God" is the motto of the Jesuits. The motto of the Templars is “non nobis, Domina, gray nomini tuo da gloriam”, which in translation: “Not to us, Lord, but to your name, give glory.” And also the famous “Kapre diem” (seize the moment) is the motto of the Epicureans, taken from the opus of Horace.
"Either Caesar, or nothing" was the motto of Cardinal Borgia, who took the words of Caligula, a Roman emperor famous for his exorbitant appetites and desires.
"Faster, higher, stronger!" – It has been the symbol of the Olympic Games since 1913.
"De omnibus dubito" (I doubt everything) is the motto of René Descartes, the scientist-philosopher.
Fluctuat nec mergitur (floats, but does not sink) - the coat of arms of Paris has this inscription under the boat.
Vita blue libertate, nihil (life without freedom is nothing) - with these words, Romain Rolland, a famous French writer, walked through life.
Vivere eats militare (to live means to fight) - the motto of the great Lucius Seneca the Younger, Roman poet and philosopher.
On the benefits of being a polyglot
A story is circulating on the Internet about a resourceful student of the medical faculty who witnessed how a gypsy woman became attached to an unfamiliar girl with calls to “gild her pen and tell fortunes”. The girl was quiet and modest and could not correctly refuse a beggar. The guy, sympathizing with the girl, came up and began to shout out the names of diseases in Latin, waving his arms around the gypsy. The latter hastily retreated. After a while the guy and the girl happilymarried, remembering the comical moment of meeting.
Origins of language
The Latin language got its name from the Lanites who lived in Latium, a small area in the center of Italy. The center of Latium was Rome, which grew from a city to the capital of the Great Empire, and the Latin language was recognized as the state language in a vast territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in parts of Asia, North Africa and the Euphrates River valley.
In the second century BC, Rome conquered Greece, mixing ancient Greek and Latin languages, giving rise to many Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, among which Sardinian is considered the closest in sound to Latin).
In the modern world, medicine is unthinkable without Latin, because almost all diagnoses and medicines are heard in this language, and the philosophical works of ancient thinkers in Latin are still an example of the epistolary genre and cultural heritage of the highest quality.
