Latin proverbs: examples. Popular Latin expressions

There are moments in the conversation when ordinary words are no longer sufficient, or they seem homely to the deep meaning that you want to convey, and then come to the aid of winged sayings - Latin ones are the most powerful in strength of thought and laconism.

The Latin language is alive!

A great number of words and phrases in different languages of the world are borrowed from Latin. They are deeply entrenched, which are used very often. For example, everyone knows aqua (water), alibi (proof of innocence), index (index), veto (prohibition), persona non grata (a person whom they did not want to see and did not expect), alter ego (my second self), alma mater (Mother-nurse), caprice (catch the moment), as well as all the known post-scriptum (PS) used as a reference to the main text, and a priori (relying on experience and faith).

Based on the frequency of using these words, it is too early to say that the Latin language has long since died. He will live in Latin proverbs, words and aphorisms for a long time.

The most famous sayings

A small list of the most popular Latin expressions, known to many lovers of works on history and philosophical conversations over a cup of tea. Many of them are practically native in frequency of use:

Doom spiro, spero. - While I breathe I hope. This phrase first occurs in Cicero's "Letters" and also from Seneca.

De Mortus Out Bene, Out Nihil. "The dead are good, or nothing." It is believed that this phrase was used by Chilo in the fourth century BC.

Vox populace, Vox Dia. - The voice of the people is the God's eye. The phrase sounded in the poem of Hesiod, but for some reason it is attributed to the historian William of Malmesbury, which is fundamentally wrong. In the modern world, fame for this saying was brought to the film "V - Vendetta".

Memento Mori. - Memento Mori. This expression was once used as a greeting from the trapped monks.

A note of ben! - A call to pay attention. Often written in the margins of the texts of great philosophers.

O Tempora, O mores! - About times, o mores. From "Speech against Catilina" Cicero.

Postfactum. - It is often used in the designation of an action after an already accomplished fact.

About this contra. - Pros and cons.

Inno veritas (in bono veritas). - Truth in good.

Volence, Nolens. - Willy-nilly. You can still translate as "do you want, do not want to"

The Truth in Wine

One of the most famous Latin sayings is "in vino veritas", in which the truth is veritas, in vino - the wine itself. This favorite expression of people, often attached to the glass, in such a cunning way, they justify their craving for alcohol. Authorship is attributed to the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, who died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. At the same time, his true version sounds somewhat different: "The truth in wine has more than once drowned," and the implication is that a drunk person is always more truthful than sober. The great thinker was often quoted in his works by the poet Block (in the poem "The Stranger"), the writer Dostoevsky in the novel "The Adolescent" and some other authors. Some historians argue that the authorship of this Latin proverb belongs to a completely different, Greek poet Alkey. Also there is a similar Russian proverb: "What's sober on the mind, then drunk on the tongue."

Quotes from the Bible translated from Latin into Russian

Many of the phrases used now are gleaned from the greatest book of the world and are the seeds of great wisdom, passing from century to century.

Who does not work - does not eat (from the second epistle of the Apostle Paul). Russian counterpart: who does not work, he does not eat. The meaning and sound are almost identical.

Let this cup pass me by this. - This is taken from the Gospel of Matthew. And from the same source - the student does not stand above his teacher. Remember that you are dust. - Taken from the book of Genesis, this phrase reminds everyone that has become proud in its greatness that all people are made from one "test".

The abyss calls for the abyss (Psalter.) The phrase in Russian has an analogue: trouble does not come alone.

Do what you want to do (the Gospel of John). "These are the words Jesus told Judas before the betrayal."

Phrases for every day

Latin proverbs with transcription in Russian (for more convenient reading and memorization) can be used in ordinary conversation, decorating your speech with wise aphorisms, giving it special acuity and uniqueness. Many of them are also familiar to the majority:

Dias is a doce. - Every previous day teaches a new one. Attributed to the authorship of Publius Sir, who lived in the first century BC.

Ecco Homo! "There's a Man!" The expression is taken from the Gospel of John, the words of Pontius Pilate about Jesus Christ.

Elephantham ex muscian facis. "You make an elephant out of a fly."

Errare Humanum Est. - It is peculiar for a person to make mistakes (these are also Cicero's words) ..

Essay kwam videry. - Be, not seem to be.

Anime. - From the heart, from the heart.

The excite of the act is probat. - The result justifies the means (action, act, act).

Search for someone to profit from

Kui Bono and Kui Prodest (quid prodest). - The words of the Roman consul, who was often quoted by Cicero, who in turn is cited everywhere by detectives in contemporary films: "Who benefits, or look for someone who benefits."

Researchers of ancient treatises on history believe that these words belong to the lawyer Cassian Raville, who in the first century of our century investigated the crime and applied such words to the judges.

Words of Cicero

Mark Tullius Cicero is a great ancient Roman speaker and politician who played a leading role in exposing the Catilino conspiracy. Was executed, but many sayings of the thinker for a long time continue to live among us, as the Latin proverbs, and in fact very few people know that it belongs to him authorship. For example, everyone knows:

Ab igne İnnem. - From fire fire (Russian: from the fire and into the fire).

A faithful friend is known in the wrong business (in a treatise on friendship)

To live is to think (vivere eats kogitare).

Either let him drink or leave (out bibbath, out abate) - the phrase was often used on Roman feasts. In the modern world has an analog: in someone else's barracks with their charter do not go.

The habit is the second nature (the treatise "About the highest good"). This statement was also picked up by the poet Pushkin:

The habit is given to us from above ...

The letter does not blush (epistula non-erubescit). From Cicero's letter to the Roman historian, in which he expressed his satisfaction with the fact that on paper he can express much more than words.

Everyone is prone to make mistakes, but only a fool - to persist. Taken from the work "Filipiki"

About love

In this subsection, Latin proverbs (with translation) about the highest feeling - love are given. Reflecting on their deep meaning, one can trace the thread that connects all times: Trahit sua quemque voluptas.

Love is not treated with herbs. The words of Ovid, who later paraphrased Alexander Pushkin:

The disease of love is incurable.

Femina nihil pestilentius. "There is nothing more deadly than a woman. Words belonging to the great Homer.

Amor omnibus are going. - Part of Virgil's saying, "love is one for all". There is also a variation: love all ages are submissive.

Old love should be beaten with love, as with a stake. The words of Cicero.

Analogues of Latin expressions and Russian

Many Latin proverbs have identical proverbs in our culture.

Eagle does not catch flies. - Each bird has its own pole. It hints at the fact that one must adhere to their moral principles and rules of life, without sinking below their level.

Excess food prevents the sharpness of the mind. - The words of the philosopher Seneca, who have a related proverb among Russians: a full belly to science is deaf. Perhaps that's why many great thinkers lived in poverty and hunger.

There is no thin without good. Absolutely identical is a saying in our country. Or maybe some Russian boy has borrowed it from the Latin, and since then has it happened?

What kind of king is the crowd. Analog - what a priest is, and so is the parish. And more about the same: no place is painting a person, but a person's place.

What is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull. About the same: Caesar - Caesar's.

Who has done half the battle - has already begun (ascribed to Horace: "Dimidium fact, qui tzopit, habet"). Plato has the same meaning: "The beginning is half of the matter", and also the old Russian proverb: "The good beginning of the half-cycle was pumped out."

Patriet fumus igne alieno luculenzior. - The smoke of the fatherland is brighter than the fire of a foreign land (Russian .- The smoke of the fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us).

Motto's mottoes

Latin proverbs were also used as the motto of famous people, communities and fraternities. For example, "the eternal glory of God" is the motto of the Jesuits. The motto of the Templars is "non-nobis, Domino, sed nomini tuo da gloriam", which translates: "Not to us, Lord, but to your name give glory." And also the famous "Capre diem" (catch the moment) is the motto of the Epicureans, taken from Horace's opus.

"Or Caesar, or nothing," is the motto of Cardinal Borgia, who took the words of Caligula, the Roman emperor, famous for his excessive appetites and desires.

"Faster, higher, stronger!" - Since 1913 is a symbol of the Olympic Games.

"De omnibus tibeto" (in all doubt), - the motto of René Descartes, a philosopher scientist.

Fluctuat nec mergitur (floats, but does not sink) - on the coat of arms of Paris there is this inscription under the boat.

Vita is a blue libertate, a nihil (life without freedom is nothing) - with these words Romen Rolan, a famous French writer, was living.

Vivere eats militar (to live, means to fight) - the motto of the great Lucius Seneca the Younger, the Roman poet and philosopher.

About how useful it is to be a polyglot

The Internet is haunted by a story about the resourceful student of the medical faculty, who witnessed how a gypsy girl was attached to an unfamiliar girl with the appeals to "gild the pen and tell fortunes for luck." The girl was quiet and shy and could not properly refuse to beg. The guy, sympathizing with the girl, came up and began shouting the names of the diseases in Latin, waving his arms around the gypsy. The latter hastily retreated. After a while the guy and the girl were happily married, remembering the comical moment of acquaintance.

The origins of the language

Latin received its name from the cheeks that lived in Latium, a small area in the center of Italy. The center of Latsium was Rome, which grew from the city to the capital of the Great Empire, and Latin was recognized as a state language on a vast territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as parts of Asia, North Africa and the Euphrates River valley.

In the second century BC, Rome conquered Greece, mixed the ancient Greek and Latin languages, giving rise to many Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, among which the Sardinian language is considered the closest in sounding to Latin).

In the modern world, without medicine, medicine is inconceivable, because almost all diagnoses and medications are heard in this language, and the philosophical works of ancient thinkers in Latin are still a model of the epistolary genre and the cultural heritage of the highest quality.