Nullius in verba (Latin for "no one's words" or "take nobody's word for it" [1] ) is the motto of the Royal Society. John Evelyn and other fellows of the Royal Society chose the motto soon after the Society's founding in 1660. [2]
Nullius in verba (Latin for "no one's words" or "take nobody's word for it" [1] ) is the motto of the Royal Society. John Evelyn and other fellows of the Royal Society chose the motto soon after the Society's founding in 1660. [2]
The Royal Society website says that the motto is "an expression of the determination of Fellows to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment." [1]
The phrase comes from Horace's Epistle to his benefactor Maecenas, where he claims not to be devoted to any particular sect but is rather an eclectic by nature. [3] [4] [5] The motto was extracted from the first of two hexameters, as indicated in bold:
Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri, – quo me cumque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes.
("No one is addicted to swearing by the words of the teacher, – to which whenever the storm takes me, I am carried away as a guest.") [6]
Using macrons to indicate long vowels, the phrase can be written as Nūllīus in verba, where the stress accent in Nūllīus appears on the second-to-last syllable due to the long ī.
The minor planet known as 11059 Nulliusinverba in the asteroid belt is named after the expression. [7] The phrase is also widely used and cited elsewhere. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Quintus Horatius Flaccus, commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his Odes as just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading: "He can be lofty sometimes, yet he is also full of charm and grace, versatile in his figures, and felicitously daring in his choice of words."
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English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts.
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The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, education and public engagement and fostering international and global co-operation. Founded on 28 November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II as The Royal Society and is the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world.
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A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its definition and numerous attempts to find specific criteria of the concept remain controversial. Different standards have been proposed, depending on the theoretical background and descriptive context; these do not converge on a single definition. Some specific definitions of the term "word" are employed to convey its different meanings at different levels of description, for example based on phonological, grammatical or orthographic basis. Others suggest that the concept is simply a convention used in everyday situations.
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The Epistles of Horace were published in two books, in 20 BC and 14 BC, respectively.
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