
Legal term meaning "by the court", as in a per curiam decision.


A common variant, ad astra per aspera ("to the stars through hardships"), is the state motto of Kansas. Motto of NASA and the South African Air Force. In 1929, the Royal Australian Air Force decided to adopt it as well.įrom Seneca the Younger. Rider Haggard's famous novel The People of the Mist, and was selected and approved as a motto for the Royal Flying Corps on 15 March 1913. Motto of the British Royal Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Written on an old Latin tablet in downtown Verona (Italy). "if you can use money, money is your slave if you can't, money is your master" Pecunia, si uti scis, ancilla est si nescis, domina From this, the phrase was expanded to pecunia non olet, or rarely aes non olet ("copper doesn't smell"). "money doesn't smell", "money has no odor"Īccording to Suetonius, when Emperor Vespasian was challenged by his son Titus for taxing the public lavatories, the emperor held up a coin before his son and asked whether it smelled or simply said non olet ("it doesn't smell"). If the mother is peaceful, then the family is peaceful.Ī period of relative prosperity and lack of conflict in the early Roman Empire the peace forcefully imposed by the Roman Empire "peace of mothers, therefore peace of families" Francis of Assisi and, consequently, of his monastery in Assisi, in the Umbria region of Italy. Like the vast majority of inhabitants of the ancient world, the Romans practiced pagan rituals, believing it important to achieve a state of Pax Deorum (The Peace of the Gods) instead of Ira Deorum (The Wrath of the Gods). Used in the Peace and Truce of God movement in 10th-Century France. Said to be one of Carl Gauß's favorite quotations. The traditional beginning of a Roman Catholic confession.įrom The King and I by Rogers and Hammerstein. Derived from the phrase pater familias, an Old Latin expression preserving the archaic - as ending. In Roman law, a father had enormous power over his children, wife, and slaves, though these rights dwindled over time. The eldest male in a family, who held patria potestas ("paternal power"). Implies that the weak are under the protection of the strong, rather than that they are inferior. "the mountains are in labour, and a ridiculous mouse shall be born" Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus Thus, "moving together", "simultaneously", etc.

Originally described all that was needed for emperors to placate the Roman mob, and today used to describe any entertainment used to distract public attention from more important matters. "bread and circuses", "bread and circus plays"įrom Juvenal, Satires 10, 81. Used to politely acknowledge someone who disagrees with the speaker or writer.Īlso "contracts must be honored". Loosely, "be at peace", "with due deference to", "by leave of" or "no offense to". Some of the phrases are themselves translations of Greek phrases, as Greek rhetoric and literature reached its peak centuries before that of Ancient Rome:Ī B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V This appendix lists direct English translations of Latin phrases. If so, the sections can be reviewed individually: Warning, this page may be too large for some browsers.
