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Hi 安澜

Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone.

So we've talked about the everyday expressions that everybody know and now shall we move on to legal terms because I watch a lot of legal or courtroom dramas and you keep hearing things like “pro bono” like lawyers need to do or law firms need to do some “pro bono work”.

Pro bono means for the good and it's providing free legal aid.

其实就是免费提供法律援助. So it's basically like a charitable thing for the good pro bono work. And what about something else?

Well, I would say something that you probably have heard status quo.

Everybody has heard of status quo. Status quo, it means just current state or现状.

The current state of things. So it refers to maintain in the present situation with no changes.

So for example, you can say “I don't really like the status quo in our economy”.

Exactly.

Or “they are trying to adopt new policies to change the status quo”.

Yeah, absolutely. So for political, you might have heard the expressions “de facto” and “de jure”.

De jure I'm not so sure, but de facto I know it means “in fact”, 就是事实什么, for example, de facto marriage.

So something that's true in practice, but it's not officially recognized, and the opposite is de jure, which means by law, so something that's legally recognized, but it's not actually true in practice.

Like even if it's not true in practice就是by law的法律意义上的, “jure” like “jury” “juror”.

Exactly.

I see, so we can truly find the roots of many words in Latin.

Exactly.

Okay, then what about the more scientific academic terms?

Well, I know you like lots of crime dramas. So this is one you've definitely heard postmortem.

Postmortem. Postmortem It can mean many things, but like officially, it means after death. So for example, in legal drama or medical drama, they say, let's have a postmortem. That means they have an autopsy, exactly, 就是死后尸检可以叫postmortem.

But I've heard it used in other scenarios is like, let's have a postmortem, even if they're not talking about people, they're talking about after this is done, let's talk about it. Let's talk about the event after it's already done or failed. Yes, let's dissect it.

It exactly. Now another phrase that you use a lot is “per capita”.

Per capita就是人均 GDP per capita. Oh yeah, you mentioned capita is head, so it's per

Head.

Yeah, Per head or per person.

Oh. That's why I always getting confused, it’s like per person, why is it capita? So it's per head, per head, per capita.

And something that's used in diplomacy is “persona non grata”.

Oh yes. This is in like for diplomats, you're not welcomed in this country. Yeah, 叫不受欢迎的人. You're not liked or unwelcome person.

Yeah, so a person who is not welcome, but you can also use that in social settings as well.

I officially declare 安澜, you are persona non grata in this studio.

Oh okay, can I go then?

No.

Oh okay. So the last expression I want to explain is in vitro.

Isn't in vitro like test tube babies and stuff ?

Yeah, it means in glass.

So it's not just about fertility. No, it could be about other medical experiments.

Any experiments outside of a living body like in test tubes.

体外, 比如说试管婴儿这种好像还有什么别的方面, 就是治疗方面的也是In vitro.

In vitro, yeah.

Okay, but you also have many everyday expressions. Things like when you talk about meetings, you have regular meetings, but you also have ad hoc meetings.

Yeah, ad hoc means for this purpose. So it's something that's created for a specific reason and it's often temporary. So for example, you talk about an ad hoc arrangement ad hoc plan, ad hoc meeting.

就临时或专项会议is for disperse only不是例会. And I keep using things like vice versa, 反之亦然.

Yeah, that just means the other way round.

I don't like you.

Vice versa.

You don't like me.

There we go.

And one thing I've learned from watching a lot of TV shows and movies.You know when people are trying to be cute, they say my bad, instead of saying they did something wrong. For example I broke the glass and then I don't wanna say my bad, I say mea culpa, mea culpa. my sin? my fault, my fault ,okay.

Mea culpa, Mea is my?

And culpa is fault, so blame. So for example, you can describe someone as culpable. They are the one who is to blame.

Oh, this is why you need to learn a little bit of Latin because you will find so many connections, so like hidden clues in language,

Exactly.

There's lots of Latin clues. Would you say, 安澜 that by learning Latin, by majoring in Latin and ancient Greek, you have a much larger vocabulary than average native speakers.

To a certain state, yes.

Don't be modest.

Okay, yes I do. The reason for that is because there's so many kind of Latin roots and English has got such a huge vocabulary. So even if I don't know what the word means, if it's academic, you can guess. I can guess what it means, or I can guess roughly what it means from Latin.

This makes 安澜 super annoying when playing word games like scrabble.

Oh, I am very annoying playing scrabble. Yeah.

Scrabble 拼字游戏, because he has such a large vocabulary. I mean I especially for a non native speaker, I have a huge vocabulary, but he often beats me. I know it's your language, but a normal native speaker might not necessarily be able to beat me, but you can beat me.

Now who's being modest now?

I've never said I'm a modest person.

That is true.

But okay. Now since we're coming to the end of this two part episode, let us talk about some quotes in Latin.

Yeah, so for example, the most famous one “ veni vidi vici”.

That's Julius Caesar, that's Julius Caesar凯撒大帝的. In English It means I came I saw I conquered.Yes. 超级霸气 that is such a bossy statement.

Well, he did. This is what he said when he was busy conquering France and other countries.

Yeah, that I know, that from historical facts, yes; but he really after conquering a land, and he really stood atop and just said Veni, vidi, vici .

No, he didn't.

Okay.

He said veni vidi vici.

Which means ?

Exactly the same. It's just that the v is pronounced as a “w” in Latin.

Oh okay,so It's not v, it's / w/, / weni/, /widi/,/ wici/

See that would be so much easier for a Chinese speaker to pronounce .

Yeah, but that's the whole thing. The original pronunciation because we know how Latin is pronounced but because of centuries, we've adopted Latin using kind of our own pronunciation.

So something's kind of lost, okay.

So another one is Cogito, ergo sum.

I know what that is. That is “I think therefore I am”我思故我在, yeah, isn't that from Rene Descartes? It is. Was he French?

He was French, but he was of that time when all educated people spoke and wrote in Latin, for example, Isaac Newton very rarely wrote in English. He wrote his scientific work in Latin.

I see, I see. So academic works back then were all written or mostly written in Latin.

Yeah.

Okay, so that is cogito, ergo sum, I think, therefore I am.

Yeah, now going back to Julius Caesar, Alea iacta est

I've never heard of that one.

Well, you've probably heard the English translation “the die is cast”.

The die is cast就是色子已经掷出去了, die is dice, right? Yeah. It's a bit like the Chinese 木已成舟 it's done, there's no return.

This is a very famous story when Julius Caesar started a Civil War and he did that by crossing a very small stream called the Rubicon. So nowadays, when we say the die is cast or we say we've crossed the Rubicon, it means we have reached the point of no return. We cannot go back.

There's only one way, there is only one direction to go .

Exactly.

It's going forward .

And we don't know if we are gonna be successful or not.

I see.

Another Latin phrase that you can use if you want to show off among your friends is

Sapere aude.

Sapere aude, Let me guess Sapere S-A-P-E-R-E right? Sapient, sapio? doesn't that mean knowledge or knowing?

Yes. And aude?

How do you spell it?

Aude.

It's not audible, so maybe it's au-... audacity or like the courage?

Dare to know,

敢于知道, dare to know. Hang on. That is a model for the Enlightenment.

Yeah, the 18th century Enlightenment.

启蒙运动里面说到了 dare to know, because knowledge will... that will set you free... knowledge will set you free or something like that.

Yeah, the truth will set you free. 真理会给你自由.

And to finish this, I have to share with you one of my favorite Latin quotes. I've seen it written again on walls of some of the pubs I go to.

I have a shrewd idea which one you're talking about.

And we're talking about wine bars.

Okay, so three words, in vino veritas.

In wine, there is truth, In vino veritas

酒里有真理. Vino is still like the word for wine in like Italian, for example, right? So in vino, verify, see, verify this is truth.

It is true.

酒中有真理.

Trust you to come up with that phrase.

In vino veritas, doesn't mean that you can seek truth in wine or is it just because when you get drunk, you tell the truth.

It means that people only speak honestly when they are drunk.

酒后吐真言, 是不是这个意思? 所以不是酒里有真理, 是酒后吐真言。

You are such an alcoholic.

I'm really not, but I learn my Latin mostly in bars.

Well, that's one place to know it.

All right. So let's wrap up these two part episodes about Latin, and how it has impacted the English language. If you know any other Latin quotes or words that you have encountered in your studies, leave us a comment in the comment section or you can put in a request for the things that you want us to talk about. Thank you, 安澜, for enlightening us.

Gratias agere, Valēte!

What does that mean?

Thank you and goodbye.

Okay, we'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.