Canis Latinicus: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:oots-
{{quote|'''Mike:''' Lots of multi-syllabic non-words in this story?
'''Kevin:''' Yeah, see they simply took Latin... and ruined it.
|''[[Riff Trax]]'' of ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]] and the Sorcerer's Stone''}}
In a show rife with magic users or scientific terminology, [[Altum Videtur|Latin is the gear of choice]]. It's exotic-sounding, it has a word for almost everything, and it's fairly well-known. With Latin by your side, you can spout off any string of awesomeness you want, and easily throw in a few less-than-Latin
But what happens when you run out of Latin? Or if your spell or radioactive element has some attribute that you don't know how to name? Well, just make up some new Latin! It's easy: take an English
Greek is often used interchangeably with Latin for such purposes (as in the ''-opolis'' example above); few writers bother to make a distinction.
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== ANIMICVS ET MANGVS ==
* Many of the episode titles in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' are in Latin-ish. However, The original manga [[Shown Their Work|takes care to get all of its Latin, ancient Greek, and other languages correct, and has translations and commentary in the English-language Del Rey and Kodansha USA releases]].
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== FILMICVS -- LIVVS ACTIONICVS ==
* ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian]]'' gives us another round of [[Punny Name|punny names]], such as [[Gag Penis|Biggus Dickus]] and his wife Incontinentia Buttocks. The trope as a whole, though, is parodied in the scene where a Roman centurion makes Brian painstakingly correct the grammar of his "Romans Go Home" graffiti. It is a perennial favorite among cool high-school Latin teachers (though he uses the term "locative" incorrectly).
*
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Enchanted]]'' makes all her magical incantations in something Latinesque.
* The mission scene in ''[[Beavis and Butthead]] [[The Movie|Do America]]'' has background music whose text, the score's composer admits in a DVD feature (and demonstrates in the manuscript score), runs: "''Scrotum agitato, Ignoramus, Genitilis longuis, Hemorrhidus burnum'' all day long."
* The [[Stoner Flick]] ''[[J-Men Forever!]]'' has the motto of the <s>G-Men</s> J-Men as "''U Cannabis Smokem''."
* The original version of Disney film ''The Shaggy Dog'' and its sequel ''The Shaggy DA'' had the incantation "in canis corpore transmuto" —
* The beginning of the escape sequence from ''[[Johnny Dangerously]]'' has one of his [[Mooks]] pretending to be a priest giving him [[Last Rites (trope)|the last rites]]:
{{quote|'''Charley:''' ''Dominus vobiscum nabisco. Espiritu sanctum. De gustibus. Me gustibus. You gustibus. We missed the bus. They missed the bus. When's the next bus? Summa cum laude. Magna cum laude. The radio's too laude. Adeste fidelis. Centra fidelis. High fidelis. Post meridian. Ante meridian. Uncle meridian. All of the little meridians. Magna carta. Master charga. Dum procellas. Lotsa Vitalis.'' }}
== LITERATVRAE ==
* Most of the spells in ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' were (loosely) based on Latin ("Expelliarmus", "Wingardium Leviosa", etc.) Most of them sounded decent, but occasionally one more obvious would enter the mix, such as "Petrificus Totalus"
* The eponymous wizard in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' straight up admits he's using quasi-Latin or pseudo-Latin, in so many words, with spells like "Fuego!" for fire (when he needed [[More Dakka]] with it, we even got "Fuegoso! Pyrofuego!"), "Forzare!" for force and "Ventas servitas" for wind. They're his three favourite standby spells. The Faux-Latin words apparently are helpful foci for concentrating the energy that allows magic to happen. (Other wizards have been described as using Japanese, Sumerian, Greek, and Egyptian-based spell invocations in the books, but the exact words are not given.) In this particular case, it's important that he ''not'' use proper Latin words, because the words of a spell become inextricably bound with the use of magic in a wizard's
** On top of that, his ''actual'' Latin is ''horrible.'' And if he learned it better, using actual Latin for spells would no longer work, as the buffer would no longer be provided. No one uses spells in real languages that they actually know, mostly to protect themselves from that backlash.
* Finding a mysterious fossil of a never-before-seen organism, one of the protagonists of [[Eric Flint]] and [[Ryk E. Spoor]]'s ''[[Boundary]]'' names it ''Bemmius secordi''. The ''secordi'' is for the Secord family, on whose land it was found. Only a few people catch on that the ''Bemmius'' is her covert reference to "Bug Eyed Monster", as she's convinced it's the fossil of an alien but dares not to say so openly.
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** For starters, the city's mottos are: ''Quanti canicula ille in fenestra'', or "How much is that doggie in the window," and ''Merus in pectum et in aquam'', or "Pure in heart and water", [[Blatant Lies|for a city whose river is so polluted you could skateboard across it (''especially'' in the summer)]].
** The City Watch's motto is ''[[Dirty Harry|Fabricati Diem Pvnc]]'', apparently an abbreviated form of a previous motto (''Fabricati Diem, Pvncti Agvnt Celeriter'' -- "make the day, the moments will pass quickly"), which LOOKS as though it means "make my day, punk", but doesn't - but one the members is convinced it means "To Protect and Serve". Since at least one of them seems to be able to translate Latatian quite well otherwise, it's possible they're just fooling themselves.
** This became a plot point in ''[[
** The motto of Lord Vetinari is "Sic non confectus, non reficiat" which is said to translate as "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
** ''[[
** Occult uses of
** The motto for Unseen University is ''Nunc id Vides, Nunc ne Vides'', or "Now you see it, now you don't."
** The Fool's Guild has ''Dico, Dico, Dico'', or "I say, I say, I say"
** In ''[[
** Elsewhere in the same book, Vimes comes upon the remains of a statue of General Tacticus (an ancient Morporkian war hero, better at conquering than Alexander the Great), the plinth of which bears the motto "Ab hoc possum videre domum tuum," or "I can see your house from up here." This is noted to have been both a boast ''and'' a threat.
** The motto of the extended [[Grim Reaper|Death]] family is ''Non Timetis Messor''. The literal translation is ''Have No Timidity Towards He Who Gathers The Harvest'', or in plain English, ''[[Blue Öyster Cult|Don't Fear The Reaper]]''.
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** In a similar vein, Nanny Ogg translates her favorite [[Bawdy Song]], for Casanunda's benefit, as "Il Porcupino Nil Sodomy Est" ("The Hedgehog Can Never Be Buggered"). Naturally, the full lyrics are never given.
** Quoting this stuff is, of course, a favorite pastime of the Lawyers Guild and by extension, its head [[Amoral Attorney|Mr Slant]]. Amusingly a lot of what he says sounds like complete nonsense, like citing someone should be released from prison on the grounds of something that translates as "pockets full of fish", but it always has actual precedent in Ankh-Morpork law. (In that case, someone was thrown into a lake, but since their pockets filled with fish, the judge determined that the whole experience had been a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|net benefit]] and the thrower could not be prosecuted.) This is a thematic reference to real-world legal examples known by funny names, such as the "fertile octogenarian", the "unborn widow", and the "[[Team Fortress 2|magical gravel pit]]". A technicality of inheritance law, known as the "rule against perpetuities", has spawned a number of such seeming absurdities.
** In ''[[
** ''Jingo'' has him quote the doctrine of "acquiris quodcumque rapis" ("you get what you grab") in relation to the territorial dispute at the heart of the novel's plot.
** One of the books is titled ''[[
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
* The poem "[[wikipedia:The Motor Bus|The Motor Bus]]" by A.D. Godley declines "motor bus" in every possible way as if it actually were a Latin noun phrase. Which, technically, it ''is'', except bus is a contraction of "omnibus", which is dative plural
* Being set in the ''[[Warhammer
** ''Caves of Ice'' takes place on the [[Single Biome Planet|frozen planet]] of Simia Orichalchae (which roughly translates as "brass monkey", as in "cold enough to freeze the balls off..."). There's also a reference to the planet Nusquam Fundumentibus ("arse end of nowhere").
** ''Duty Calls'' takes place on Periremunda ("lost world") and includes a plateau named Aceralbaterra, which translates as Maple White Land, [[Genius Bonus|the name of the plateau in]] [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s ''[[The Lost World (novel)|The Lost World]]''. Bonus points because after being discovered by Acer Alba, Periremunda was rediscovered by "Magos Provocare," a name that could be rendered as "Professor Challenger."
** An undescribed type of food mentioned more than once is [[Soylent Green|"soylens viridiens"]].
* "Archaic" in [[The Queen's Thief|Megan Whalen Turner's]] novels appears to be a mix of this and [[Gratuitous Greek|kyneio:s hellenizesthai]].
* Used deliberately in ''[[The Handmaid's Tale]]'', when Offred discovered a scratched phrase in Latin -- "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum"
* The [[Dr. Seuss]] character Thidwick the moose is labeled as ''Moosus antlerus''. (For the record, the real scientific term for moose is ''Alces alces''.)
== LIVVS ACTIONICVS TELEVISAE ==
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', the Ancient language is quasi-
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' [[Subverted]] this by using (mostly) accurate Latin as the language of magic.
* ''[[Charmed]]'' started out as an [[Aversion]], since the spells in the Book of Shadows were all in English and the sisters created their own spells in English as well. It was rife with it in later seasons, though. The episode "A Witch in Time" features a warlock whose spells are invented Latin words. ("Consilio"? (for "Conceal") "Incendiares globus"? "TELEPORTATO"?)
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{{quote|'''Shakespeare:''' "Banished like a tinker's cuss, I say to thee..." ''(he again looks to the Doctor)''
'''The Doctor:''' Uh... ''(he looks to Martha)''
'''Martha Jones:''' [[Harry Potter (novel)|Expelliarmus!]]
'''The Doctor:''' Expelliarmus!
'''Shakespeare:''' "Expelliarmus!"
'''The Doctor:''' [[Shout-Out|Good old J.K.!]] }}
** In "The Almost People", the Doctor calls Rory "Roranicus Pondicus" in reference to his time as "Rory the Roman".
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== TABLETOPIVM GAMEAE ==
* The Imperium of Man in the ''[[Warhammer
** Some examples include the
** Not all of the examples go down quite so easy, though
* ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''
** The game features some odd Latin. "Lancea Sanctum"? "Ordo Dracul"? You can kind of tell they stuck random inflections (or no inflections, as the case may be) to words.
** ''Requiem in Rome'' puts a small [[Retcon]] on the
*** Interstingly in the German version of the game, the name of the Lancea Sancta is spelled correctly, ie Lancea Sancta. So no need for a justification. This could be due to the fact that Latin classes are still quite common in German High Schools so chances are high that one of the translators knew his Latin.
** "Ordo Dracul" is stranger still: ''Dracul'' is not Latin, but ''Romanian'' for "the dragon" or "the devil"; the ''-ul'' ending translates as the article "the".
* ''[[Dungeons
** The original "Monster Manual" included Dog Latin versions of taxonomic names for its ten varieties of dragon (genus ''Draco''). Some of these were puns, particularly the ''Draco Comes Stabuli'', the "constable" [[Don't Explain the Joke|or "copper"]] dragon.
** The third edition undead manual is called ''Libris Mortis'', a name which sounds pretty good, but doesn't actually work because of the similarity of the words for "book" and "free". ''Liber Mortis'' would be ''Book of the Dead,'' but ''Libris Mortis'' works out to "of the Dead Book". The much of the community even calls it the "Book of Bad Latin"
* Third edition ''[[
== VIDEVS GAMEAE ==
* The Troggles in the MECC's ''[[Number Munchers|Munchers]]'' games have the genus name "Trogglus" and species names such as "smarticus", "normalus", and "timidus".
* The unofficial "motto" of arcane casters on the Khyber server in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons Online]]'' is "''Vene Vidi Igni''"
* ''[[Escape from Monkey Island]]'' has a bit of gratuitous Latin (the inscription on one pirate statue reads something like "Where is the booty?") This frustrates the main character, who eventually mutters something about wishing he had bought the ''Latin for Scummies'' book.
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has some fun with this. During The Quest for the Holy [[MacGuffin]], you get a number of clues for various obstacles, some of which follow this trope. Such as:
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* In the ''[[Halo (series)|Halo]]'' universe, all the Covenant species, in addition to having a nickname (e.g., "Elites") and a formal name ("Sangheili"), also have a faux-Latin scientific name ("Macto cognatus"). You can read all the names and the meanings behind them in [http://forums.bungie.org/halo/archive29.pl?read=865756 this forum post].
* The names of the skills in ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]'' have dog-Latin translations.
* ''[[
* ''[[Lost]]: Via Domus'' is an egregious example. In the game, Locke translates the [[Title Drop]] as "The Way Home," which is apparently what the game creators meant, except that it would be Via Domum. This is actually pretty funny when you realize that it's the same mistake as in ''Life of Brian'' above. Most people just call it ''Lost: The Game'' though, because that's funny too.
* There's an online game called ''Gladiatus: Hero of Rome''. It ([[Did Not Do the Research|ostensibly]]) involves playing as a Gladiator in Ancient Rome. The title is nothing short of weird, considering it seems to be a "Latinized" version of the word "gladiator." Especially considering that the Latin word for "gladiator" is, (surprise!) "gladiator". While ''gladiator'' essentially means ''sword-user'' (swordsman), ''gladiatus'' would be closer to ''someone on whom a sword is used'', [[Ironic Name|which fits, but probably not in the way they were hoping]].
* ''[[Black Sigil]]'' uses this to differentiate spells from regular ol' abilities. "Nox Ico" and "Curo Orbis" may ''sound'' like Latin, but... at least in those two examples, the only mistake is leaving object nouns (which should be accusative) in the nominative.
* ''[[Lost Souls MUD]]'' has lots of this flying around, especially in the names of the mage
* The background music in the world map phase of ''Rome: [[Total War]]'' contains actual Latin words as lyrics, but strung together with no regard for anything besides how they sound.
* In both ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'' games, clicking on any one of your spells causes an evil sounding voice to mutter what at first sounds like utter gibberish. However if you listen closely the words are actually real-world words that somehow relate to the spell being cast. Examples of such incantations: ''Aggressum Attractus'' - call to arms ("attract aggressors"), ''Otus Diabolus'' - evil sight, ''Electrodius'' - lightning, ''Vitae'' - heal, ''Mortis'' - disease, (from the 2nd game) ''Impius Factoria'' - create imp, ''Expressus Americanus'' - create money.
* Of all the ''[[Pokémon]]'', only Oddish has a confirmed scientific name: "Oddium Wanderus".
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', the opening song is called "Liberi Fatali", intended to mean "children of fate" or "fated children". "Liberi" is a nominative plural noun meaning "children", which they got right. "Fatali" is a singular dative/ablative adjective whose root is "fatalis," or "fated," and while the word is right, the case and number are wrong, the proper phrase should be "Liberi Fatales" or "Liberi Fati." [[Word of God]] says that this was an oversight.
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20141112001010/http://mdfs.net/Software/JSW/JGH/Screens/BigMap.htm Jet Set Willy]'' includes a room called [[In the Name of the Moon|"Nomen Luni"]]. The correct Latin would be "Nomen ''Lunae''", since Luna is a feminine noun.
* The [[All in The Manual|manual]] for ''[[Command & Conquer|Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Firestorm]]'' includes "scientific" notes of Dr. Boudreau. These notes have information on the new [[Green Rocks|tiberium]]-based lifeforms that have "evolved" in contaminated areas. One of these is commonly known as the tiberium fiend. The eggheads felt the need to label it Canis Tiberius, even though Boudreau herself points out that the fiend has nothing in common with canines, except looking vaguely similar. Dogs aren't generally known for shooting [[Green Rock]] spikes at you from their backs. They also aren't horse-sized.
* The Piranicus Giganticus (a giant Piranha Plant) from the ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' series games.
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** Parodied with [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0253.html strip #253], where Larry Gardener (himself a parody of [[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]) casts ''Stoppus Badguyus''.
** The strip also uses it to parody [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0635.html here].
* From ''[[Loserz]]'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20110223183142/http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/75 this strip, second panel]. Technically, that should be "{{spoiler|Slutta Maxima}}".'
* In ''[[The KAMics]]'' we have the dinosaur [https://web.archive.org/web/20120607081911/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4770686/ Teinoknemesaurus kamus], the magic spells [https://web.archive.org/web/20120607082128/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4800312/ Petrifacto], and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120806003208/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_KAMics/4824803/ Unpetrifacto]
* ''[[Wizard School]]'' parodies with, among other spells, [https://web.archive.org/web/20121105001210/http://www.meetmyminion.com/?p=1303 "Bastardized Latinium]."
* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' in an obligatory ''[[Harry Potter]]'' joke on a hidden page [http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2007-09-19 here] ({{spoiler|"Gofucko yourselfix!" shouted Hermione.}}).
* ''[[Devil Bear]]'' [http://thedevilbear.com/comics.php?p=919 here] and on the next page.
{{quote|'''Devilbear''': "Ignoramus" to you too! }}
== WEBVS ORIGINALIA ==
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* Many of ''[[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner|Wile E Coyote and The Road Runner]]'' cartoons in [[Looney Tunes]] introduce the pair with fake scientific names usually derived in this manner. Examples include ''Speedometrus Rapidus'' for the Roadrunner, and ''Famishus Famishus'' for the Coyote.
** ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' had one short which introduced Fifi le Fume as "''Sexius Skunkus''". [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Amazing that the censors let that pass...]]
** Subverted in 2003's "Whizzard of Ow" in which the actual binomial names were used: ''Canis Latrans'' for the Coyote (Noisy
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''
** "You are, as they say in Latin, a ''dorkus malorkus''."
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== REALISEA LIVVM ==
* The VST synthesizer [http://www.soniccharge.com/synplant Synplant] is supposed to represent an "organic" mode of creating
* Scientists, when naming new species, will often name them after famous scientists or political figures, though instead of "us," they often add "-i" (for the genitive case) instead. This gets really silly when the person being honored is named "Ishii".
** An example that makes Aussies' skin crawl - a species of land snail now known by the scientific name ''Crikey steveirwini''.
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** [[Terry Pratchett]] has an extinct species of turtle ([[Discworld|what else?]]) (Psephophorus terrypratchetti) named after him, and keeps a fossil of it on his desk.
** ''Gingoites nannyoggiae'', (at least, as reported by the Art of Discworld), the scientific name of a particular Mesozoic plant.
** Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits has the [
** At first, ''[[Jurassic Park]]'''s movie [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying|looked a bit odd to palaeontologists]], as the "velociraptors" were far too large. Then along came a discovery of a raptor-family dinosaur in Utah, every bit as big as the raptors in the movie and even bigger. It was dubbed ''Utahraptor spielbergi''. Technically, the animal is now called ''Utahraptor ostrommaysorum''. Another scientist, however, named a species of pterosaur (flying reptiles related to the dinosaurs) of the genus ''Coloborhynchus'', "''Coloborhynchus spielbergi''", although its validity as a separate species of ''Coloborhynchus'' is currently under debate.
** John Cleese has [[wikipedia:Bemaraha Woolly Lemur|a lemur]] named after him. As far as cuteness goes, he wins.
** Archeologists excavating a Mayan artifact site found a pictographic collection containing a carving of a very large, stylized snake; which they unofficially named ''"montypythonidies"''.
** On hearing about the newly discovered spider ''Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi'', Stephen Colbert demanded that he get an animal, too. The biologist in question duly named "Aptostichus stephencolberti".
** Musician Sting has an Amazonian tree frog named after
** And then there's Calponia harrisonfordi, which is a primitive spider.
** A species of mushroom has been named ''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13874049 Spongiforma squarepantsii]'' in homage to ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''.
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** Another fly called ''Phthiria relativitae'' (the "ph" is silent)
** And several species of fungus beetle called ''Gelae baen'', ''Gelae belae'', ''Gelae donut'', ''Gelae fish'', and ''Gelae rol''
* Elements get "ium." A number of naturally-occuring elements, plus all of the transuranic
** 19th-century British chemist Humphry Davy settled first on "alumium," then on "aluminum," for the element he was trying to isolate. [[The Other Wiki]] quotes the ''Quarterly Review'' as being the first to insist on calling in aluminium, "in preference to aluminum, [[Rule of Cool|which has a less classical sound]]." But "aluminum" had already taken off in some circles, and today it keeps us [[Separated by a Common Language]]. The spelling "aluminium" was made standard by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (which is the international body about, well, chemistry) in exchange for accepting the American spelling "sulfur" as opposed to the British "sulphur."
** On [[The Other Wiki]], the argument over whether "aluminum" or "aluminium" is correct has spawned more hate-filled diatribes and edit wars than even the George W. Bush page. Word has it that even bringing it up in any online conversation anywhere will cause secret cabals of incensed editors to use reverse DNS methods to find out where you live, hunt you down and[[Interrupting Meme|3w587fuN^NO&*IULYBvilu£%b6viaby5i+++NO CARRIER+++]]
* Various current brands of natural yoghurt contain bacterial cultures with "marketing names" such as Bifidus Digestivum, Bifidus Activo or Digestivum Essensis. This can also get a bit silly.
* Scientology, the name of which is derived from both the Latin (scīre) and Greek (lógos) words for knowledge, has the same story attached to it.
** The same goes for "automobile"
** Amusingly, the same is true for the brown bear, Ursus Arctos. Ursus is Latin for bear, and arctos is Greek for... [[Department of Redundancy Department|bear.]] Considering that [[Everything Is Worse With Bears]], C.P. Scott may have been on to something indeed.
** Or take the black rhinoceros. Both parts of its scientific name (''Diceros bicornis'') mean "Two Horns", in Greek and Latin respectively.
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* A common phrase that Latin scholars will hear from many non-Latin scholars is "Semper ubi sub ubi", which is jibberish when translated directly. The English translation is "Always where under where", but obviously sounds like "Always wear underwear." However, to many a Latin lover, this gets ''really'' old after awhile.
* For some reason, Russian schoolchildren memorize "Fortuna non phallus, manus non receptum" and "Per anum astrae non opticum". And "Lingua Latina non penis canina". The supposed translations are "Good luck is not a penis, you cannot hold on to it with your hand", "Stars are not visible through an asshole" and "Latin language is not a (thing of low importance) dog's penis".
** The last one is technically correct,<ref>Except for the dropped copula, but that's acceptable in Vulgar Latin</ref>
* Japanese artist Yuki Kajiura uses faux Latin (amongst other languages) in many of her songs, filtered through her Japanese accent and the general rule of making it sound lyrically appropriate above all else, to the point that a fan nickname has been made for
* The South African legal term of "crimen injuria": what it's intended to mean is "crime of unlawful damage [to dignity]," i.e., criminal racism, but "injuria" is nominative, and "crimen" means "charge," not "crime." Translated faithfully, it could only mean "unlawful damage to a criminal charge."
* In the history of the Modern Greek language, there was a period called Katharevousa, which sought to purify the language of non-Greek influences and to adequately hellenize foreign place names. However, this was done in a rather haphazard manner, sometimes in ignorance of the actual Greek names that places already had. One of simplest ways to adapt place names was to calque Latin script spellings to Greek letters (actual letter pronunciation differences be damned), and add the feminine suffix -η (-i), or to change a feminine-looking -a to -η. Barcelona, Spain was rehellenized as Βαρκελώνη (Varkeloni), in ignorance that the classical language already had a name for
* And then there is the old, old joke perpetrated on generations of Latin students by their teachers:
{{quote|''Si bili, si ergo.
''Fotibus es in ero.
''Nobili, demis trux.
''Sevat sinim -- causen dux.<ref>''{{quote|See, Billy, see her go.
''Forty buses in a row.
''No, Billy, them is trucks.
''See what's in'em -- cows and ducks.}}
The spelling may vary from version to version, but almost never the "true" meaning.</ref>}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Artistic License Linguistics]]
[[Category:Trope Names
[[Category:Language Tropes]]
[[Category:This Trope Name References Itself]]
[[Category:Gratuitous Foreign Language]]
[[Category:Urban Fantasy Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Canis Latinicus]]
[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]
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