atin-lay eff-words-ay

where my classicists at? i took five levels of latin in undergrad so that when i got into law school i would already know the difference between in posse and in esse or what the heck a doli incapax is. well friends, it turns out that latin is useful for more than just boning up on the legal system—it is also good for secretly making fun of people and selecting bitching mottoes for your tombstone*.

here are a few juicy latin phrases (that begin with f) from which you are free to pick and choose.

• fæx populi: the dregs of the people; contemptuously applied to the lower classes
• familiare est hominibus omnia sibi ignoscere nihil aliis remittere: “it is a common practice to overlook every fault in ourselves but none in others.” it is our own vanity that makes the vanity of others intolerable.
• farrago libelli: a hodgepodge of a book
• filius nullius: the son of nobody; a bastard
• flagrante bello: while the war is raging; during hostilities
• flebile remedium: a lamentable remedy
• floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant: “as bees taste of everything in flowery lawns, they collect the most precious juices of every flower.” the motto is generally chosen by selectors who cull the beauties of many authors
• fons malorum:the source of evil, vice, sin and wickedness
• formidabilior cervorum exercitus duce leone quam leonunx cervo: “an army of stags is more formidable under the command of a lion than an army of lions under a stag.”
• forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit. durate et vosmet rebus servate secundis: “perhaps the remembrance of these events may prove a source of future pleasure. endure them therefore like men and reserve yourselves for prosperous circumstances.” a most powerful appeal to companions in adversity.
• fortuna favet fatuis: “fortune favours fools”
• fruges consumere nati: “born merely to consume the fruits of the earth.” drones in the social hive whose only business is to devour the fruits of other men’s labour.
• fuit ilium: “troy has been.” that which was an object of contention exists no more.
• furiosus furore suo punitur: “a madman is punished by his own madness.”

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*(and/or ex libris)
source: a new dictionary of quotations from the greek, latin, and modern languages (1859).