Filed under: in the news, politics | Tags: barack obama, current events, Dana Perino, Latin phrases, President Bush, quid pro quo
This Tuesday, a report surfaced that President George W. Bush was less-than-thrilled that an unidentified source had informed the media he cut a deal with President-elect Barack Obama during their super-secretive White House meeting on Monday.
Responding to reports that President Bush hoped to trade passage of a Colombia free trade deal for a bailout for Detroit automakers, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said [Tuesday] that “the President did not suggest a quid pro quo.” (Politico.com)
What the heck is a “quid pro quo?” I wondered. Am I dumb or something? I looked it up. Quid pro quo … Latin for “something for something,” indicating a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods and services. Thanks, Wikipedia.
This incident made me reflect on times I’ve encountered a Latin expression in the past and hadn’t the faintest idea what it meant. As a journalism student I was always told to avoid Latin phrases in my writing. “Don’t use ‘em,” one particularly gruff professor warned. “‘Cause no one knows what in the hell they mean anyway.”
The following is a list of 25 Latin phrases you may or may not encounter at some point during your lifetime. I’d refrain from incorporating them into your vernacular at the risk of sounding … well, stick-up-ass-ish, for lack of better term. Sorry, Dana. And lawyers.
- A fortiori – from the stronger; even more so
- Ad nauseam – to the point of disgust; when something is repeated over and over
- Carpe noctem – seize the night
- Caveat emptor – buyer beware
- De facto – from deed; existing
- De jure – according to law
- Emeritus – veteran; retired from office
- Exempli gratia (e.g.) – for the sake of an example
- Habeas corpus – you may have the body; legal petition challenging imprisonment
- In actu - in practice
- Inter alia – among other things
- Ipso facto – by the deed itself; by the very fact
- Lectori salutem (L.S.) – greetings reader (used to open a letter)
- Memento mori – remember your mortality
- Memento vivire – remember to live
- Nihil ad rem – nothing to do with the point; irrelevant
- Pari passu – with equal step; moving together, simultaneously
- Post hoc ergo propter hoc – after this therefore because of this; it happened before and it is thus the cause
- Prima facie – by first look, self-evident from facts
- Re – by the thing; in the matter of (used in e-mail correspondence)
- Rigor mortis – stiffness of death
- Sine qua non – without which not; an indispensable person or object
- Sensu lato – in the wide sense; with the broad meaning
- Summum bonum – the highest good; the ultimate ends
- Vox nihili - voice of nothing; useless or ambiguous phrase or statement
Source: “List of Latin Phrases,” Wikipedia.com
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