This page lists English translations of notable Latin phrases, such as veni vidi vici and et cetera. Some of the phrases are themselves translations of Greek phrases, as Greek rhetoric and literature reached its peak centuries before the rise of ancient Rome.
Cicero, Paradoxa6/3:49. Sometimes translated into English as "thrift (or frugality) is a great revenue (or income)", edited from its original subordinate clause: "O di immortales! non intellegunt homines, quam magnum vectigal sit parsimonia." (English: O immortal gods! Men do not understand what a great revenue is thrift.)
maior e longinquo reverentia
greater reverence from afar
When viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful. Tacitus, Annales1.47
maiora premunt
greater things are pressing
Used to indicate that it is the moment to address more important, urgent, issues.
mala fide
in bad faith
Said of an act done with knowledge of its illegality, or with intention to defraud or mislead someone. Opposite of bona fide.
With the implication of "signed by one's hand". Its abbreviated form is sometimes used at the end of typewritten or printed documents or official notices, directly following the name of the person(s) who "signed" the document exactly in those cases where there isn't an actual handwritten signature.
Seneca the Younger, De Providentia2:4. Also, translated into English as "[their] strength and courage droop without an antagonist" ("Of Providence" (1900) by Seneca, translated by Aubrey Stewart),[2] "without an adversary, prowess shrivels" (Moral Essays (1928) by Seneca, translated by John W, Basore)[3] and "prowess withers without opposition".
mare clausum
closed sea
In law, a sea under the jurisdiction of one nation and closed to all others.
a consonant used to represent a vowel in writing systems that lack separate vowel characters, such as Hebrew and Arabic script. Translation of Hebrew: אֵם קְרִיאָהʾem kəriʾa.
A Roman law principle that the mother of a child is always known, as opposed to the father who may not be known. This principle had the power of praesumptio iuris et de iure (literally "presumption of law and by law"), meaning that no counter-evidence can be made against this principle.
Less literally, "my foot itches". Refers to a trivial situation or person that is being a bother, possibly in the sense of wishing to kick that thing away or, such as the commonly used expressions, a "pebble in one's shoe" or "nipping at one's heels".
Used in Christian prayers and confession to denote the inherently flawed nature of mankind; can also be extended to mea maxima culpa (through my greatest fault).
remember your mortality; medieval Latin based on "memento moriendum esse" in antiquity.[4]
memento vivere
remember to live
meminerunt omnia amantes
lovers remember all
memores acti prudentes futuri
mindful of things done, aware of things to come
Thus, both remembering the past and foreseeing the future. From the North Hertfordshire District Council coat of arms.
Memoriae Sacrum (M.S.)
Sacred to the
Memory (of ...)
A common first line on 17th-century English church monuments. The Latinized name of the deceased follows, in the genitive case. Alternatively it may be used as a heading, the inscription following being in English, for example: "Memoriae Sacrum. Here lies the body of ..."
mens agitat molem
the mind moves the mass
From Virgil; motto of several educational institutions
Or "Boastful Soldier". Miles Gloriosus is the title of a play of Plautus. A stock character in comedy, the braggart soldier. (It is said that at Salamanca, there is a wall, on which graduates inscribe their names, where Francisco Franco had a plaque installed reading "Franciscus Francus Miles Gloriosus".)
An accommodation between disagreeing parties to allow life to go on. A practical compromise.
Monasterium sine libris est sicut civitas sine opibus
A monastery without books is like a city without wealth
Used in the Umberto Eco novel The Name of the Rose. Part of a much larger phrase: Monasterium sine libris, est sicut civitas sine opibus, castrum sine numeris, coquina sine suppellectili, mensa sine cibis, hortus sine herbis, pratum sine floribus, arbor sine foliis. Translation: A monastery without books is like a city without wealth, a fortress without soldiers, a kitchen without utensils, a table without food, a garden without plants, a meadow without flowers, a tree without leaves.
A common epitaph, from St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, 1:21 (Mihi enim vivere Christus est et mori lucrum, translated in the King James Bible as: "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain")
mors omnibus
death to all
Signifies anger and depression.
mors tua, vita mea
your death, my life
From medieval Latin, it indicates that battle for survival, where your defeat is necessary for my victory, survival.
Used to justify dissections of human cadavers in order to understand the cause of death.
mortuum flagellas
you are flogging a dead (man)
From Gerhard Gerhards' (1466–1536) [better known as Erasmus] collection of annotated Adagia (1508). Criticising one who will not be affected in any way by the criticism.
an unwritten code of laws and conduct, of the Romans. It institutionalized cultural traditions, societal mores, and general policies, as distinct from written laws.
Conciseness. The term "mipmap" is formed using the phrase's abbreviation "MIP"; motto of Rutland, a county in central England. Latin phrases are often multum in parvo, conveying much in few words.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
In Greek mythology, Glauce, Latin Glauca, refers to different people:
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder, also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rhetoric, six books of which are extant in a more or less complete state and five others in epitome only. His principal work, a history of Roman affairs from the beginning of the Civil Wars until the last years of his life, is almost entirely lost to posterity. Seneca lived through the reigns of three significant emperors; Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula. He was the father of Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, best known as a Proconsul of Achaia; his second son was the dramatist and Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger (Lucius), who was tutor of Nero, and his third son, Marcus Annaeus Mela, became the father of the poet Lucan.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur, a Latin phrase, means "The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived."
Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus or Gallio was a Roman senator and brother of the famous writer Seneca. He is best known for dismissing an accusation brought against Paul the Apostle in Corinth.
The Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, also known as the Moral Epistles and Letters from a Stoic, is a letter collection of 124 letters that Seneca the Younger wrote at the end of his life, during his retirement, after he had worked for the Emperor Nero for more than ten years. They are addressed to Lucilius Junior, the then procurator of Sicily, who is known only through Seneca's writings. Regardless of how Seneca and Lucilius actually corresponded, it is clear that Seneca crafted the letters with a broad readership in mind.
In Greek mythology, Phorbas, or Phorbaceus, may refer to:
Phrike is the spirit of horror in Greek mythology. Her name literally means "tremor, shivering", and has the same stem as the verb φρίττω (phrittō) "to tremble". The term "Phrike" is widely used in tragedy.
Limos, Roman Fames, is the deity and personification of starvation, hunger and famine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Unlike the other gods of the pantheon, Limos is of indeterminate sex, and was portrayed as either male or female depending on region and cult. Limos was opposed by Demeter, goddess of grain and the harvest with whom Ovid wrote Limos could never meet, and Plutus, the god of wealth and the bounty of rich harvests. In the book of Revelation, he is represented as the rider of the black horse.
The gens Annaea was a plebeian family at Rome during the first century BC, and the early centuries of the Empire. Members of this gens were distinguished for their love of literary pursuits. Several members of the family fell victim to the various plots and intrigues of the court of Nero, including the conspiracy of Gaius Calpurnius Piso.
In Greek mythology, Dyssebeia was the spirit and personification of impiety and ungodliness, as opposed to Eusebeia. Her Roman equivalent was Impietas.
De Beneficiis is a first-century work by Seneca the Younger. It forms part of a series of moral essays composed by Seneca. De Beneficiis concerns the award and reception of gifts and favours within society, and examines the complex nature and role of gratitude within the context of Stoic ethics.
De Tranquillitate Animi is a Latin work by the Stoic philosopher Seneca. The dialogue concerns the state of mind of Seneca's friend Annaeus Serenus, and how to cure Serenus of anxiety, worry and disgust with life.
De Ira is a Latin work by Seneca. The work defines and explains anger within the context of Stoic philosophy, and offers therapeutic advice on what to do to prevent anger.
De Otio is a 1st-century Latin work by Seneca. It survives in a fragmentary state. The work concerns the rational use of spare time, whereby one can still actively aid humankind by engaging in wider questions about nature and the universe.
In Greek mythology, Creusa or Glauce, Latin Glauca, was a princess of Corinth as the daughter of King Creon.
References
↑ Harbottle, Thomas Benfield (1906). Dictionary of Quotations (Classical). The Macmillan Co.
1 2 Harbottle, Thomas Benfield (1906). Dictionary of Quotations (Classical). The Macmillan Co.
1 2 Burton, Robert (1990). Kiessling, Nicolas K.; Faulkner, Thomas C.; Blair, Rhonda L. (eds.). The Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 3, Sect. 4. Memb. 1. Subs. 2.. Vol.3. Oxford University Press. p.347.
1 2 Plutarchus, and Theophrastus, on Superstition; with Various Appendices, and a Life of Plutarchus. Kentish Town: Julian Hibbert. 1828. First Appendix, p. 5. Based in part on material by Daniel Albert Wyttenbach.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
