by Wendy Brock

Created on: December 01, 2008   Last Updated: July 27, 2009

Latin is not a dead language, it's just undead. It's kind of like a zombie language that no one uses regularly, but it's all around us like a zombie infection. The Latin language is used every day in common speech. You can see Latin phrases on money, hear Latin when you watch weather reports, and suprisingly, you will come across Latin words every day in regular conversation.

Thousands of English words are derived from Latin. You use Latin words probably everyday and didn't even know it. This undead language is kind of starting to sound a bit spooky, isn't it?

Here are a few words that use Latin prefixes: abduct, adjunct, ambidextrous, antecede, circumcise, compound, destroy, dispel, excrement, inoculate, intermittent, obstruct, permeate, postpone, preamble, proceed, remember, retro, submarine, superlative, and transatlantic.

Did you know that telling time uses Latin words? A.M. is the abbreviation for the Latin words Ante Meridian. P.M. is the abbreviation for the Latin words Post Meridian. You've already seen that "ante" means "before" and "post" means "after." So what is Meridian? It's a combination of definitions. "Dia" means "day."

"Meri" means "middle." Meridian is translated as "middle of the day." So Ante Meridian means "Before the Middle of the Day" and Post Meridian means "After the Middle of the Day." The middle of the day is noon, so before noon is A.M. and after noon is P.M.

Whenever you read the calendar, you're looking at words that go back to Roman times. A.D. is the abbreviation for Anno Domini, which means "In the Year of our Lord." But Latin doesn't stop there as far as the calendar is concerned. March was originally the first month of the Roman calendar and was named after Mars, the god of war. Ovid wrote that April was devoted to Venus and that May and June were devoted to elders and young men.

The rest of the months were named after their number of the months: Quintilis, the fifth month, since "Quint" means five; Sextilis, the sixth month; September, the seventh month; October, the eighth month; November, the ninth month; December, the tenth month. Makes much more sense now, doesn't it?

January and February were added to the calendar in 713 B.C. January was named after the sky-god Janus.

Quintilis was later to changed to Iulius or what you know now as July. Julius Caesar changed it in 46 B.C. changing the name of the calendar to the Julian Calendar. By the way, it was called "Iulius," pronounced "YOO-lee-us" because Latin doesn't have the letter "J."

Impress your girlfriend or boyfriend with your Latin knowledge the next time you go to the movies. MGM or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's opening to all movies with the lion roaring shows Latin above the lion's head: "Ars Gratia Artis." This means: Art for Art's Sake, or Art for the Sake of Art.

There's Latin in your pocket! Check out your money. Above the pyramid read: Annuit Coeptis, or "God has favored our undertaking" and below the pyramid read: Novus Ordo Seclorum, or "A new order has begun."

This seems to be sufficient enough to get you started thinking about how undead Latin really is. The words we use everyday are graced with Latin, which is much better than to be graced by zombies.

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