Latin Words and Phrases

Searching the Web for help, I found this sentence, “It’s not a problem of your system, per say.”

Ouch.

Per se is Latin for “in/by itself or themselves; as such.”  Many Latin terms are part of English.  Once English italicized all foreign terms, but in the U.S., we write the common ones in regular type, as a good dictionary will confirm.

Of course, medical and legal dictionaries are full of Latin. 

Below are a few Latin terms in everyday English:

ad hoc - for this (current) purpose. The crisis was assessed by an ad hoc committee.

de minimis - slight(ly) or negligib(ly)  We found other errors but judged them de minimis.

deus ex machina - supernatural intervention to “save the day”

e.g. exempli gratia - examples drawn from among others; an incomplete list 

ergo - therefore 

i.e.  id est - that is; a complete list

ipso facto - by that fact alone.  All care by physicians is not ipso facto the best care.

mutatis mutandis - all things being equal; after the appropriate changes are made

pro bono -  for the good of others; work done without charge

pro rata - proportionately shared.  We combined the shipment, but billed each party pro rata.

quid pro quo - what is given in exchange.  He offered a favor, but there was a quid pro quo.

quod erat demonstrandum Q.E.D. - [This is] what we set out to prove.

sic - yes; so.  "That is how the writer wrote it."  Used to recognize an error.

Here is a link to many, many more Latin terms. 

And here is a shorter list that includes abbreviations. 

Intelligences

Mirror picture

More and more I am convinced every child has intelligences that we need to free up.

Edward was assigned to take five photos with a digital camera. One had to be a portrait, and he chose a self portrait.  I lent him my camera, and I set up a mirror that he could photograph.  The resulting photo, as it popped up on the back of the digital camera, was just a glare.

I was stymied; but Edward wasn’t, not even for five seconds. He reversed the camera so it pointed toward him.  He used the mirror to see the camera’s viewing window, and snapped the shutter.  He took a photo with minimal glare (above).

I would never have solved the problem, let alone solve it as quickly as he did. 

Edward is 16, and attends a good private high school.  His grades are not great.  He struggles with finding the right word, and he fails to understand idioms. (He thought “on pain of death” meant that you were painfully dying.)  His teachers criticize his written work.

But Edward’s peers seek him out when they need someone who listens thoughtfully and counsels carefully.  And as the photo story shows, he’s a problem solver. 

Someday our school system will value people like Edward.  If he could teach others what’s natural to him, we might have world peace.