College Latin Phrases

I remember getting my high school dipolma, and it had these interesting words on it, Cum Laude. I had no idea what it meant, or even what language it was in. Is that sad?

The fact that degrees are given with Latin words on it, but then no one takes Latin anymore, so who can read their own degree? Or why all the frat houses in college had those funny looking symbols (Greek alphabet)?

I remember reading Harvard's motto, Veritas (truth), and wondering what it meant. The fact is, when Harvard was first started in 1636, all you had to do in order to gain entrance was to read Virgil and Cicero in Latin, and translate Greek texts into english extemporaneously. Here are some pictures of the entrance exam into Harvard nearly 200 years later in 1869, which still required the ancient language qualifications.

It was like an epiphany when I was able to read the words that I use to see everywhere on campus. But that's kinda how far we've come as a culture, I guess, so far gone from the source that we don't even understand the words at the top of the entrance to our own buildings. It's like some kinda twisted dream. We put on the robes of the ancient cultures, but have no idea what they mean, or why they were used. 

Anyway. In some of the research that I've been doing in studying Latin, I found some of these sayings to be interesting. 

alma mater = nurturing/kind mother

mater = mother

alma = nuturing/kind

cum laude = with praises (or distinction, or honor)

cum = with

laude = praises 

magna cum laude = with great praises 

magna = great (like magnus, or mangum)

cum = with

laude = praises 

summa cum laude = with highest praises (honors)

summa = highest, the top of (think of summit) 

cum = with

laude = praises 

Phi Beta Kappa is Greek 

ΦΒΚ

The Greek letters, PBK, or ΦΒΚ, come from the initial letters of a Greek motto philosophia biou kubernētēs ‘philosophy is the guide to life.’

Valedictorian (vale dicer) 
to say farewell (usually in the graduation speech)
Vale = farewell
dictorian (dicer) = to say 

Here are some interesting Latin phrases I liked this past week:

Hannibal ad portas

Hannibal is at the gates 

ad = to, towards

portas = gates 

infinitus est numerus stultorum

infinite is the number of fools

infinitus = infinite

est = is

numerus = number

stultorum = fools

Ego non baptizo nomine patri, sed nomine diaboli*

I do not baptize you in the name of the father, but the name of the devil 

literally: I no immerse you name father, but name devil 

Ego = I

non = not

baptizo = baptize (immersed)

nominie = name

patri = father

sed = but

nomine = name

diaboli = devil 

*a line from Mellville's Moby Dick

That is all for today :) 

Today's progess with Latin

I found a pretty nifty saying today while doing some of my Latin studies. It’s a quote about truth being a better friend to you than even Plato:

Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.

(literally: Plato is a friend, but truth a better friend.)

Here are the translations:

amicus = friend

plato = plato

sed = but

magis = more

amica = friend

veritas = truth

Now that you know the vocabulary, you can translate it yourself. How would you translate it?

Here are some variations from others that translated the saying:

Plato is my friend, but truth is a better friend

Plato is a friend, but more of a friend, truth

Plato I love, but I love truth more.
Plato draws near and gives us good, but truth stands alone and is always giving good (artistic license, of course). 

I also found another interesting Latin Maxim:

Ad fontes

ad = to, towards

fontes = sources

Renaissance men would hold this saying in esteem because it meant to go to the sources of the original Latin and Greek texts. 

Sed in primis ad fontes ipsos properandum, id est graecos et antiquos.

(Above all, one must hasten to the sources themselves, that is, to the Greeks and ancients.)