Latin you use all the time but may not understand

Yep, you read right, this post is about latin. 

No, don’t run away, I’m not about to become all school-masterly here (you can take those fetishes elsewhere), this is just a quick overview of a few of those latin terms and abbreviations that we tend to use all the time. The point is to explain what they mean and when they should be used so that you can feel all superior and knowledgeable when someone else gets it wrong.

If I teach you grammar, then get it wrong, will you comment just to tell me off...?

etc. 

One of the most widely used latin terms, this is short for et cetera, translated as ‘and others’. This should be used at the end of a shortened list to indicate that there could be other additional elements in it. This should not be used if you have already listed all of the possible items as it is then redundant.

e.g.

This term is often confused with i.e. (explained below). They have two distinct roles and hopefully this will help to show what they are. e.g. is an abbreviation of exempli gratia, which translates as ‘for example’. This is where you are wanting to give examples of something, but is intended to indicate a partial list of those items. As below:

The members of The Beatles (e.g., John Lennon, Paul McCartney) are very famous.

We know there are other items that could go in the list, but we have given a smaller number of examples. This is also a situation where etc. could be used:

The members of The Beatles (e.g., John Lennon, Paul McCartney, etc.) are very famous.

i.e.

Short for id est, this term is translated as simply ‘that is’. It is used where a full list is used or a direct equivalent is described. It can also be thought of as an ‘=‘ symbol. As below:

The members of The Beatles (i.e., John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) are very famous.

With this usage it should be possible to swap the equivalent terms and still have the sentence make sense:

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr (i.e., the members of The Beatles) are very famous.

The following would be incorrect:

The members of The Beatles (i.e., John Lennon, Paul McCartney) are very famous.

The members of The Beatles (e.g., John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) are very famous.

The first sentence implies that John Lennon and Paul McCartney were all of the members of The Beatles, which is wrong. The second sentence gives the impression that the four members listed are only an example, so there must be more, which is also wrong.

N.B.

This is the only one of the latin abbreviations that should be capitalised. It is short for nota bene, translated as ‘note well’, but should be taken to mean ‘PAY ATTENTION’. It is used to indicate that the following statement is important and should be taken as a key bit of information, even if it is not deemed important enough to be in the main body of the text.

circa or (c.)

This term means ‘around’ or ‘approximately’. It is used with figures and is meant to give a rough guide to the value, not an exact value.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built circa 2540 - 2560 BC.

…would be correct.

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built circa 14th June 2543 BC, at 4.25 in the afternoon, just after a lovely game of cricket.

…would not.

sic or [sic]

This is short for sic erat scriptum and means ‘thus was it written’. This is often found in articles where another source is being quoted and is intended to show that any spelling or grammatical abnormalities in the preceding text are carried over from that source and are not the fault of this author. It is usually contained within square brackets to show that it is not a part of the text (as parentheses are), but simply a declaration of “wasn’t me guv, it was spelled wrong when I got here”. 

So there you have it, you can now say you know some latin. Chances are you’ve been using most of these all the time without even thinking about their origins or what they mean, but hopefully I’ve helped to clarify the correct usage of some or explain the meaning of others.

Don’t worry, posts like this will be few, and far between, but if even one of you suddenly looks up, wide-eyed and goes, “Ahhh, now I understand!”, I’ve done something useful.

See you next week.

sic erat scriptum