| Latin | Translation | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| That what's shat, is not painted. | From Gottfried August Bürger's Prinzessin Europa (line 60); popularised by Heinrich Heine's Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (XI, 44); also the title of Joseph Haydn's canon for four voices, Hob. XXVIIb:16; Ludwig van Beethoven set the text by Bürger as a three-voice canon, WoO 224. Contemporary critics applied this epithet to both of Turner's Regulus (1828 and 1837).[1] | |||||
| insatiable desire to write | Cacoēthes "bad habit", or medically, "malignant disease" is a borrowing of Greek kakoēthes. The phrase is derived from a line in the Satires of Juvenal: Tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes, or "the incurable desire (or itch) for writing affects many". See hypergraphia. | |||||
| truly countless bodies | Used by the Romans to describe the aftermath of the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. | |||||
| Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. | Kill them all. For the Lord knows those who are his. | Supposed statement by Abbot Arnaud Amalric before the Massacre at Béziers during the Albigensian Crusade, recorded 30 years later, according to Caesarius of Heisterbach. cf. "Kill them all and let God sort them out." | ||||
| Those who hurry across the sea change the sky [upon them], not their souls or state of mind | Hexameter by Horace (Epistula XI).[2] Seneca shortens it to Latin: Animum debes mutare, non caelum (You must change [your] disposition, not [your] sky) in his Letter to Lucilius XXVIII, 1. | |||||
| Caesar non supra grammaticos | Caesar has no authority over the grammarians | Political power is limited; it does not include power over grammar.[3] | ||||
| caetera desunt | the rest is missing | Caetera is Medieval Latin spelling for cētera. | ||||
| calix meus inebrians | my cup making me drunk | |||||
| calamus gladio fortior | The pen is mightier than the sword | |||||
| camera obscura | dark chamber | An optical device used in drawing, and an ancestor of modern photography. The source of the word camera. | ||||
| Cane Nero magna bella Persica | Tell, oh Nero, of the great wars of Persia | Perfectly correct Latin sentence usually reported as funny from modern Italians because the same exact words, in today's dialect of Rome, mean "A black dog eats a beautiful peach", which has a ridiculously different meaning. | ||||
| canes pugnaces | war dogs or fighting dogs | |||||
| canis canem edit | dog eats dog | Refers to a situation where nobody is safe from anybody, each man for himself. Original name of the video game Bully. | ||||
| capable of receiving God | From Augustine, De Trinitate XIV, 8.11: Mens eo ipso imago Dei est quo eius capax est,[4] "The mind is the image of God, in that it is capable of Him and can be partaker of Him." | |||||
| capax imperii nisi imperasset | capable of imperial power if only he had not held it | In Tacitus's Histories to describe Galba as emperor.[5] | ||||
| capax infiniti | holding the infinite | Capability of achieving goals by force of many instead of a single individual. | ||||
| caput inter nubila (condit) | (she plunges) [her] head in the clouds | So aggrandized as to be beyond practical (earthly) reach or understanding (from Virgil's Aeneid and the shorter form appears in John Locke's Two Treatises of Government) | ||||
| caput mortuum | dead head | Originally an alchemical reference to the dead head or worthless residue left over from a reaction. Also used to refer to a freeloader or worthless element. | ||||
| Caritas Christi | The love of Christ | It implies a command to love as Christ loved. Motto of St. Francis Xavier High School located in West Meadowlark Park, Edmonton. | ||||
| Caritas Christi urget nos | The love of Christ impels us or The love of Christ drives us | The motto of the Sisters of Charity[6] | ||||
| Caritas in veritate | Charity in truth | Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical[7] | ||||
| carpe diem | seize the day | An exhortation to live for today. From Horace, Odes I, 11.8. Carpere refers to plucking of flowers or fruit. The phrase collige virgo rosas has a similar sense. | ||||
| carpe noctem | seize the night | An exhortation to make good use of the night, often used when carpe diem, q.v., would seem absurd, e.g., when observing a deep-sky object or conducting a Messier marathon or engaging in social activities after sunset. | ||||
| carpe vinum | seize the wine | |||||
| Carthago delenda est | Carthage must be destroyed | The Roman senator Cato the Elder ended every speech after the Second Punic War with ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam, literally "For the rest, I am of the opinion that Carthage is to be destroyed." | ||||
| castigat ridendo mores | One corrects customs by laughing at them | Or, "[Comedy/Satire] criticises customs through humour", is a phrase coined by French Neo-Latin poet Jean-Baptiste de Santeul (1630–1697), but sometimes wrongly attributed to his contemporary Molière or to Roman lyric poet Horace. | ||||
| Casum sentit dominus | accident is felt by the owner | Refers to the private law principle that the owner has to assume the risk of accidental harm to him or accidental loss to his property. | ||||
| casus belli | event of war | Refers to an incident that is the justification or case for war. | ||||
| causa latet, vis est notissima | The cause is hidden, but the result is well known. | Ovid Metamorphoses IV, 287; motto of Alpha Sigma Phi. | ||||
| causa mortis | cause of death | |||||
| cave | beware! | especially used by Doctors of Medicine, when they want to warn each other (e.g.: "cave nephrolithiases" in order to warn about side effects of an uricosuric). Spoken aloud in some British public (paid) schools by pupils to warn each other of impending authority. | ||||
| cave canem | Beware of the dog | Earliest written example is in the Satyricon of Petronius, circa 1st century C.E. | ||||
| caveat emptor | let the buyer beware | The purchaser is responsible for checking whether the goods suit his need. Phrases modeled on this one replace emptor with lector, subscriptor, venditor, utilitor: "reader", "signer", "seller", "user". | ||||
| caveat venditor | let the seller beware | It is a counter to caveat emptor and suggests that sellers can also be deceived in a market transaction. This forces the seller to take responsibility for the product and discourages sellers from selling products of unreasonable quality. | ||||
| cedant arma togae | let arms yield to the gown | "Let military power yield to civilian power", Cicero, De Officiis I:77. Former motto of the Territory of Wyoming. See also Toga#Roman military. | ||||
| cedere nescio | I know not how to yield | Motto of HMAS Norman | ||||
| Celer – Silens – Mortalis | Swift – Silent – Deadly | The motto of the force reconnaissance companies of the United States Marine Corps, also known as force recon. | ||||
| celerius quam asparagi cocuntur | more swiftly than asparagus [stem]s are cooked | Or simply "faster than cooking asparagus". A variant of the Roman phrase velocius quam asparagi coquantur, using a different adverb and an alternative mood and spelling of coquere. | ||||
| cepi corpus | I have taken the body | In law, it is a return made by the sheriff, upon a capias, or other process to the like purpose; signifying, that he has taken the body of the party. See also habeas corpus. | ||||
| certiorari | to be made certain | From certiorari volumus, "we wish to be made certain." A prerogative writ, by which a superior court orders an inferior one to turn over its record for review. Now used, depending on the jurisdiction, for an order granting leave to appeal a decision (e.g. to the Supreme Court of the United States) or judicial review of a lower court's order. | ||||
| certum est quod certum reddi potest | it is certain, whatever can be rendered certain | Or "... if it can be rendered certain." Often used in law when something is not known, but can be ascertained (e.g. the purchase price on a sale which is to be determined by a third-party valuer) | ||||
| cessante ratione legis cessat ipsa lex | when the reason for the law ceases, the law itself ceases | A rule of law becomes ineffective when the reason for its application has ceased to exist or does not correspond to the reality anymore. By Gratian. | ||||
| cetera desunt | the rest are missing | Also spelled "caetera desunt". | ||||
| ceteris paribus | all other things being equal | That is, disregarding or eliminating extraneous factors in a situation. | ||||
| charta pardonationis se defendendo | a paper of pardon to defend oneself | The form of a pardon for killing another man in self-defence (see manslaughter). | ||||
| charta pardonationis utlagariae | a paper of pardon to the outlaw | The form of a pardon of a man who is outlawed. Also called perdonatio utlagariae. | ||||
| Christianos ad leones | [Throw the] Christians to the lions! | |||||
| Christo et Doctrinae | For Christ and Learning | The motto of Furman University. | ||||
| Christus nos liberavit | Christ has freed us | title of volume I, book 5, chapter XI of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. | ||||
| Christus Rex | Christ the King | A Christian title for Jesus. | ||||
| Cicero dicit fac hoc | Cicero says do it | Said by some to be the origin of the game command and title Simon says.[8] | ||||
| Cicero's speech in 57 BC to regain his confiscated house | Said of someone who pleads cases for their own benefit; see | |||||
| circa (c.) or (ca.) | around | In the sense of "approximately" or "about". Usually used of a date. | ||||
| circulus in probando | circle made in testing [a premise] | Circular reasoning. Similar term to circulus vitiosus. | ||||
| circulus vitiosus | vicious circle | In logic, begging the question, a fallacy involving the presupposition of a proposition in one of the premises (see petitio principii). In science, a positive feedback loop. In economics, a counterpart to the virtuous circle. | ||||
| citius altius fortius | faster, higher, stronger | Motto of the modern Olympics. | ||||
| civis romanus sum | I am (a) Roman citizen | Is a phrase used in Cicero's In Verrem as a plea for the legal rights of a Roman citizen | ||||
| clamea admittenda in itinere per atturnatum | a claim to be admitted to the eyre by an attorney | A writ whereby the king of England could command the justice of an eyre (a medieval form of circuit court) to permit an attorney to represent a person who is employed in the king's service and therefore cannot come in person. | ||||
| clarere audere gaudere | [be] bright, daring, joyful | Motto of the Geal family. | ||||
| clausum fregit | he broke the enclosure | A legal action for trespass to land; so called because the writ demands the person summoned to answer wherefore he broke the close (quare clausum fregit), i.e., why he entered the plaintiff's land. | ||||
| claves Sancti Petri | the keys of Saint Peter | A symbol of the Papacy. | ||||
| clavis aurea | golden key | The means of discovering hidden or mysterious meanings in texts, particularly applied in theology and alchemy. | ||||
| clerico admittendo | for being made a clerk | In law, a writ directed to the bishop, for the admitting a clerk to a benefice upon a ne admittas, tried, and found for the party who procures the writ. | ||||
| clerico capto per statutum mercatorum | In law, a writ for the delivery of a clerk out of prison, who is imprisoned upon the breach of statute merchant. | |||||
| clerico convicto commisso gaolae in defectu ordinarii deliberando | In law, a writ for the delivery of a clerk to his ordinary, that was formerly convicted of felony; by reason that his ordinary did not challenge him according to the privilege of clerks. | |||||
| clerico intra sacros ordines constituto non eligendo in officium | In law, a writ directed to the bailiffs, etc., that have thrust a bailiwick or beadleship upon one in holy orders; charging them to release him. | |||||
| Codex Iuris Canonici | Book of Canon Law | The official code of canon law in the Roman Catholic Church (cf. Corpus Iuris Canonici). | ||||
| Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur | "No one suffers punishment for mere intent." | A Latin legal phrase. See, State v. Taylor, 47 Or. 455, 84 P. 82 (1906). | ||||
| cogito, ergo sum | I think, therefore I am. | A rationalistic argument used by French philosopher René Descartes to attempt to prove his own existence. | ||||
| coitus interruptus | interrupted congress | Aborting sexual intercourse prior to ejaculation—the only permitted form of birth control in some religions. | ||||
| coitus more ferarum | congress in the way of beasts | A medical euphemism for the doggy-style sexual position. | ||||
| collige virgo rosas | pick, girl, the roses |
| ||||
| combinatio nova | new combination | It is frequently abbreviated comb. nov.. It is used in the life sciences literature when a new name is introduced, e.g. Klebsiella granulomatis comb. nov.. | ||||
| let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die | Latin translation of no. 72 of John Chrysostom's 88 Greek homilies on the Gospel of John,[10] citing 22:13 | |||||
| communibus annis | in common years | One year with another; on an average. "Common" here does not mean "ordinary", but "common to every situation" | ||||
| communibus locis | in common places | A term frequently used among philosophical and other writers, implying some medium, or mean relation between several places; one place with another; on a medium. "Common" here does not mean "ordinary", but "common to every situation" | ||||
| communis opinio | common opinion | prevailing doctrine, generally accepted view (in an academic field), scientific consensus; originally communis opinio doctorum, "common opinion of the doctors" | ||||
| compos mentis | in control of the mind | Describes someone of sound mind. Sometimes used ironically. Also a legal principle, non compos mentis (not in control of one's faculties), used to describe an insane person. | ||||
| by wisdom and effort | Motto of the city of Manchester. | |||||
| concordia cum veritate | in harmony with truth | Motto of the University of Waterloo | ||||
| concordia salus | well-being through harmony | Motto of Montreal. It is also the Bank of Montreal coat of arms and motto. | ||||
| concordia parvae res crescunt | small things grow in harmony | Motto of Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood | ||||
| condemnant quod non intellegunt | They condemn what they do not understand or They condemn because they do not understand | The quod here is ambiguous: it may be the relative pronoun or a conjunction. | ||||
| condicio sine qua non | condition without which not | A required, indispensable condition. Commonly mistakenly rendered with conditio ("seasoning" or "preserving") in place of condicio ("arrangement" or "condition"). | ||||
| conditur in petra | it is founded on the rock | Motto of Peterhouse Boys' School and Peterhouse Girls' School | ||||
| confer (cf.) | compare | The abbreviation cf. is used in text to suggest a comparison with something else (cf. citation signal). | ||||
| Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris C.Ss.R | Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer | Redemptorists | ||||
| coniunctis viribus | with connected strength | Or "with united powers". Sometimes rendered conjunctis viribus. Motto of Queen Mary, University of London. | ||||
| consensu | with consent | |||||
| Custom serves for law. | Where there are no specific laws, the matter should be decided by custom;[11] established customs have the force of laws.[12] Also consuetudo est altera lex (custom is another law) and consuetudo vincit communem legem (custom overrules the common law); see also: Consuetudinary. | |||||
| consummatum est | It is completed. | The last words of Jesus on the cross in the Latin translation of John 19:30. | ||||
| contemptus mundi/saeculi | scorn for the world/times | Despising the secular world. The monk or philosopher's rejection of a mundane life and worldly values. | ||||
| contra bonos mores | against good morals | Offensive to the conscience and to a sense of justice. | ||||
| contra legem | against law | Especially in civil law jurisdictions, said of an understanding of a statute that directly contradicts its wording and thus is valid neither by interpretation nor by analogy. | ||||
| contra proferentem | against the proferror | In contract law, the doctrine of contractual interpretation which provides that an ambiguous term will be construed against the party that imposed its inclusion in the contract – or, more accurately, against the interests of the party who imposed it. | ||||
| contra spem spero | I hope against hope | Title of a poem by Lesya Ukrainka; it derives from an expression found in Paul's Letter to the Romans 4:18 (Greek: παρ' ἐλπίδα ἐπ' ἐλπίδι, Latin: contra spem in spe[m]) with reference to Abraham the Patriarch who maintained faith in becoming the father of many nations despite being childless and well-advanced in years. | ||||
| contra vim mortis non crescit herba (or salvia) in hortis | No herb (or sage) grows in the gardens against the power of death | there is no medicine against death; from various medieval medicinal texts | ||||
| contradiction in terms | Something that would embody a contradiction with the very definition of one of its terms; for example, payment for a gift, or a circle with corners. The fallacy of proposing such a thing. | |||||
| contra principia negantem non est disputandum | there can be no debate with those who deny the foundations | Debate is fruitless when you don't agree on common rules, facts, presuppositions. | ||||
| cor ad cor loquitur | heart speaks to heart | From Augustine's Confessions, referring to a prescribed method of prayer: having a "heart to heart" with God. Commonly used in reference to a later quote by Cardinal John Henry Newman. A motto of Newman Clubs. | ||||
| cor aut mors | Heart or Death | (Your choice is between) The Heart (Moral Values, Duty, Loyalty) or Death (to no longer matter, no longer to be respected as person of integrity.) | ||||
| cor meum tibi offero domine prompte et sincere | my heart I offer to you Lord promptly and sincerely | John Calvin's personal motto, also adopted by Calvin College | ||||
| cor unum | one heart | A popular school motto and often used as a name for religious and other organisations such as the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. | ||||
| coram Deo | in the presence of God | A phrase from Christian theology which summarizes the idea of Christians living in the presence of, under the authority of, and to the honor and glory of God; see also coram Deo. | ||||
| in the presence of the bishop | Refers to the celebration of Mass in the Roman Catholic Church where the bishop is present but does not preside over the service.[13] | |||||
| coram nobis, coram vobis | in our presence, in your presence | Two kinds of writs of error, calling for the decision to be reviewed by the same court that made it. Coram nobis is short for quae coram nobis resident (let them, i.e. the matters on the court record, remain before us), and was the form historically used for the Court of King's Bench; the "us" means the King, who was theoretically the head of that court. Coram vobis is the analogous version ("let the matters remain before you") for the Court of Common Pleas, where the King did not sit, even notionally. | ||||
| coram populo | in the presence of the people | Thus, openly. | ||||
| coram publico | in view of the public | |||||
| Corpus Christi | Body of Christ | The name of a feast in the Roman Catholic Church commemorating the Eucharist. It is also the name of a city in Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, the name of Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge universities, and a controversial play. | ||||
| corpus delicti | body of the offence | The fact that a crime has been committed, a necessary factor in convicting someone of having committed that crime; if there was no crime, there can not have been a criminal. | ||||
| Corpus Iuris Canonici | Body of Canon Law | The official compilation of canon law in the Roman Catholic Church (cf. Codex Iuris Canonici). | ||||
| Corpus Iuris Civilis | Body of Civil Law | The body of Roman or civil law. | ||||
| corpus vile | worthless body | A person or thing fit only to be the object of an experiment, as in the phrase 'Fiat experimentum in corpore vili.' | ||||
| corrigenda | things to be corrected | |||||
| corruptio optimi pessima | the corruption of the best is the worst | |||||
| corruptissima re publica plurimae leges | When the republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous | Tacitus | ||||
| corvus oculum corvi non eruit | a raven does not pick out an eye of another raven | |||||
| corruptus in extremis | corrupt to the extreme | Motto of the fictional Mayor's office in The Simpsons | ||||
| cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit, cras amet | May he who has never loved before, love tomorrow; And may he who has loved, love tomorrow as well | The refrain from the 'Pervigilium Veneris', a poem which describes a three-day holiday in the cult of Venus, located somewhere in Sicily, involving the whole town in religious festivities joined with a deep sense of nature and Venus as the "procreatrix", the life-giving force behind the natural world. | ||||
| cras es noster | Tomorrow, be ours | As "The Future is Ours", motto of San Jacinto College, Texas | ||||
| creatio ex nihilo | creation out of nothing | A concept about creation, often used in a theological or philosophical context. Also known as the 'First Cause' argument in philosophy of religion. Contrasted with creatio ex materia. | ||||
| Credo in Unum Deum | I Believe in One God | The first words of the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed. | ||||
| credo quia absurdum est | I believe it because it is absurd | A very common misquote of Tertullian's et mortuus est Dei Filius prorsus credibile quia ineptum est (and the Son of God is dead: in short, it is credible because it is unfitting), meaning that it is so absurd to say that God's son has died that it would have to be a matter of belief, rather than reason. The misquoted phrase, however, is commonly used to mock the dogmatic beliefs of the religious (see fideism). This phrase is commonly shortened to credo quia absurdum, and is also sometimes rendered credo quia impossibile est (I believe it because it is impossible) or, as Darwin used it in his autobiography, credo quia incredibile. | ||||
| credo ut intelligam | I believe so that I may understand | A motto of St Anselm, used as the motto of St. Anselm Hall, Manchester | ||||
| crescamus in Illo per omnia | May we grow in Him through all things | Motto of Cheverus High School. | ||||
| crescat scientia vita excolatur | let knowledge grow, let life be enriched | Motto of the University of Chicago. Often rendered in English as "Let knowledge grow from more to more, And so be human life enriched," so as to achieve an iambic meter. | ||||
| crescente luce | Light ever increasing | Motto of James Cook University. | ||||
| Crescite et multiplicamini | Increase and multiply | Motto of Maryland until 1874. | ||||
| crescit cum commercio civitas | Civilization prospers with commerce | Motto of Claremont McKenna College. | ||||
| crescit eundo | it grows as it goes | From Lucretius' De rerum natura book VI, where it refers in context to the motion of a thunderbolt across the sky, which acquires power and momentum as it goes. This metaphor was adapted as the state motto of New Mexico (adopted in 1887 as the territory's motto, and kept in 1912 when New Mexico received statehood) and is seen on the seal. Also the motto of Rocky Mount, Virginia and Omega Delta Phi. | ||||
| cruci dum spiro fido | while I live, I trust in the cross, Whilst I trust in the Cross I have life | Motto of the Sisters of Loreto (IBVM) and its associated schools. | ||||
| cucullus non facit monachum | The hood does not make the monk | William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 1, scene 5, 53–54 | ||||
| cui bono | Good for whom? | "Who benefits?" An adage in criminal investigation which suggests that considering who would benefit from an unwelcome event is likely to reveal who is responsible for that event (cf. cui prodest). Also the motto of the Crime Syndicate of America, a fictional supervillain group. The opposite is cui malo (Bad for whom?). | ||||
| cui prodest | for whom it advances | Short for cui prodest scelus is fecit (for whom the crime advances, he has done it) in Seneca's Medea. Thus, the murderer is often the one who gains by the murder (cf. cui bono). | ||||
| cuique suum | to each his own | |||||
| cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos | Whose the land is, all the way to the sky and to the underworld is his. | First coined by Accursius of Bologna in the 13th century. A Roman legal principle of property law that is no longer observed in most situations today. Less literally, "For whosoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to the sky and down to the depths." | ||||
| cuius regio, eius religio | whose region, his religion | The privilege of a ruler to choose the religion of his subjects. A regional prince's ability to choose his people's religion was established at the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. | ||||
| cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare. | Anyone can err, but only the fool persists in his fault | Cicero, Philippica XII, 5. | ||||
| culpa | fault | Also "blame" or "guilt". In law, an act of neglect. In general, guilt, sin, or a fault. See also mea culpa. | ||||
| cum gladiis et fustibus | with swords and clubs | From the Bible. Occurs in Matthew 26:47 and Luke 22:52. | ||||
| cum gladio et sale | with sword and salt | Motto of a well-paid soldier. See salary. | ||||
| cum grano salis | with a grain of salt | Not to be taken too seriously or as the literal truth. | ||||
| cum hoc ergo propter hoc | with this, therefore on account of this | Fallacy of assuming that correlation implies causation. | ||||
| cum laude | with praise | The standard formula for academic Latin honors in the United States. Greater honors include magna cum laude and summa cum laude. | ||||
| with the dead in a dead language | Movement from Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky | |||||
| with the exclusive right to print | Copyright notice used in 16th-century England, used for comic effect in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare where Lucentio is urged by his servant Biondello to "seize your privilege to declare her yours alone". | |||||
| let all come who by merit deserve the most reward | Motto of University College London. | |||||
| cupio dissolvi | desire to be dissolved | From the Bible, locution indicating a will to death ("I want to die"). | ||||
| cur Deus Homo | Why the God-Man | The question attributed to Anselm in his work of by this name, wherein he reflects on why the Christ of Christianity must be both fully Divine and fully Human. Often translated "why did God become Man?" | ||||
| cura personalis | care for the whole person | Motto of Georgetown University School of Medicine and University of Scranton | ||||
| cura te ipsum | take care of your own self | Exhortation to physicians, or experts in general, to deal with their own problems before addressing those of others | ||||
| curriculum vitae | course of life | An overview of a person's life and qualifications, similar to a résumé | ||||
| guard the city, O Lord | Motto of the City of Westminster | |||||
| custos morum | keeper of morals | A censor | ||||
| cygnis insignis | distinguished by its swans | Motto of Western Australia | ||||
| cygnus inter anates | swan among ducks |