Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
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Anything said inLatin sounds profound. No, really, that's what "Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur" translates into English as. In other words, if it's incomprehensible and unexplained, don't take it at face value.
Nonetheless, abusing Latin forpseudo-profundity remains very popular with doctors, snobs, etc. One of the few practical applications of a knowledge of Latin is making sport of people who do this.
Examples[edit]
The use of theBible texts provides the classic case of Latinate mystification in history. From the earlyMiddle Ages onward, theWestern Church
deliberately usedJerome'stranslation of the Bible into classical Latin, a language which became less and less comprehensible to the uneducated masses as classical Latin gave way to medievalvulgar Latin and laterevolved into the separateRomance languages. Using hifalutinmumbo-jumbomagick enabled the WesternEuropean clergy to conveniently "interpret" the Bible to mean whatever theywanted and increased the power of thepriest-caste relative to the importance of theWord.
Until the adoption of the printing press in the 15th century, almost all books in Europe were produced in Latin (or in ancient Greek) because all educated people learned classical Latin and it thus functioned as a "universal" language for the "in" crowd.
In theUK, Latin was formerly an essential part of a gentleman's education, but today it is seldom taught in state schools and Latin classes are restricted to the most expensive fee-paying schools. Hence it is particularly popular with a certain type of posh, privately-educated BritishConservative politician such asBoris Johnson andJacob Rees-Mogg.[1][2]
In other languages[edit]
In English, which nowadays is ~30% Latin in vocabulary already, Latin abuse is somewhat justifiable, as it lacks the feature of word compounding. Although thisis the result of abusing Latin like this for centuries.
But the situation of Latin abuse is worse in other languages that are neither based on Latin nor English, and have no need for foreign words either. In such languages, notably German, the usage of Latin (and in the past also English) can be almost exclusively attributed to this kind of abuse.
See also[edit]
Similar things[edit]
- Chinese/Japanese character tattoos. (And English word tattoos in China and Japan.)
- Sesquipedalianism — Ditto, but focusing on thelength of the words.
External links[edit]
- Inkhorn term – For anything said inany foreign languages
References[edit]
- ↑This lunacy about Latin makes me want to weep with rage, Boris Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, 15 Mar 2010
- ↑Jacob Rees-Mogg isn’t old-fashioned, he’s a thoroughly modern bigot, Suzanne Moore, The Guardian, 6 September 2017