Good or bad?
JANUARY 14, 2007 (MONDAY)
We see Latin inscriptions in many places. We read on our dollar bills, “ANNUIT COEPTIS, which means “God has favored our undertaking.” Also on the same bill, the Latin words, “NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, meaning “a new order has begun,” and, of course, the familiar E PLURIBUS UNUM,” meaning “Out of many, one.”
Very many of our English words have Latin etymologies.
A few Latin phrases have become so familiar to us that we need no one to interpret for us, such as “et tu Brute.” We can thank that master of English literature, William Shakespeare, for this bit of Latin.
On and on we could go, showing how Latin, though a “dead” language, is very much alive and with us every day.
So, why didn’t I study Latin? I studied a lot of English, some German, Greek and Hebrew. I studied Spanish in Junior High School, High School and College, so I should be able to speak it very well (but I don’t). I have a good accent, but not very much vocabulary. Getting back to Latin, I ask myself again, “Why didn’t I study Latin?” It was available in high school, and some of my friends studied it, but I never did. Why? I have no answer to that question. No one ever suggested it to me, and I never thought to ask.
Almost every day I run into Latin phrases and words. I either guess at their meanings, ignore them, or look them up. Many of the English words I encounter are hybrid words that incorporate Latin and sometimes Greek. If I had studied Latin, I would probably know their meanings just by their spelling, but, alas, I didn’t. Too bad.
I wish I had studied Latin. I feel I cheated myself by avoiding it. But isn’t that always the way? Every short cut we take in life catches up with us sooner or later.