Altum Videtur: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Latin is a mysterious language. It's been effectively dead for one and a half thousand years, yet somehow, it is still being used, even omnipresent in popular culture. Maybe it's that distinct, laconic sound of it unlike anything else. Maybe it's the association with the greatest [[Vestigial Empire]] of the Western world. Maybe it's the fact that it is still the [[Sacred Language|official religious language]] of the [[Christianity Is Catholic|Roman Catholic Church]]. Or it's just because Latin makes you sound and feel [[Smart People Know Latin|smart]] and badass, with all the scientific terminologies and [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]. Whatever the reason, Latin sounds awesome to most people. And that's [[Rule of Cool|enough of a reason]] to [[Mundane Made Awesome|gratuitously stick it onto any work of fiction out there.]]

* In ''[[Tombstone]]'', there is a dialog between Ringo and Doc Holliday with common latin quotations.

* ''Johnny Dangerously'' has the eponymous protagonist being led down death row by a phony priest, who begins his "last rites" by muttering common Latin phrases, then rapidly degenerates into [[Canis Latinicus]].

* As people in the [[Warhammer 40000|Imperium]] are wont to do, various characters in ''[[Damnatus]]'' utter a few phrases of <s> Latin</s> High Gothic during situations of appropriate gravitas.

* In ''[[Leviathan (film)|Leviathan]]'', the Doc is thoughtful enough to give an English version of his commentary on radical genetic engineering: "''Natura non confundenda est.'' Loosely translated: ''[[Gone Horribly Wrong|don't]] [[Lego Genetics|fuck]] [[The Virus|with]] [[Biological Mashup|Mother]] [[Body Horror|Nature]]''."

* [[Older Than Steam]]: ''[[Don Quixote]]'': This trope is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and even '''defined''' by Cervantes, a Spanish writer in the seventeenth century. At the time, Latin and Greek were languages that must be known by government bureaucrats and any people with literacy pretenses, but certainly there were a lot of books where this trope was not justified.

** In the Preface of the Author, Part I, [[Take That|Cervantes attacks ]] [[Did Not Do the Research|authors that want to impress their readers with their knowledge without the appropriate research]]. Cervantes denounces the inclusion of Latin sentences that seem to be profound [[Shown Their Work|(and so impress the readers)]], but in reality, those Latin sentences were very common and any author of his time could find them with very little effort.

** Another example is lampshaded in Part II, chapter LI. Sancho has been made [[Massive Multiplayer Scam|governor of the "Island of Barataria"]]. In the seventeenth century, it was expected that members of the government and the aristocracy would be well educated, and this education included Latin. Don Quixote never uses Latin in his sentences with Sancho because he is not interested in impressing him with his superior knowledge, but he expects that Sancho will learn Latin now that he is a governor:

* In ''[[A Canticle for Leibowitz]]'' the last words spoken are "Sic transit mundus"<ref>Thus passes the world</ref>, which is a play on the Latin phrase "Sic transit gloria mundi" <ref>Thus passes the glory of the world</ref>

* [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s ''[[Farmer Giles of Ham]]'' features Latin names which are then translated into the 'vulgar tongue'. Provides [[Bilingual Bonus]] since the translations are often not exact.

* [[George Eliot]] complains of this in ''[[Silly Novels by Lady Novelists]]'':

* In the [[Space Trilogy]] of [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]], the character of Merlin speaks only in Latin. Because Lewis was a brilliant Latinist, it's all correct. [[Justified Trope|It also makes sense]], since Merlin has been in suspended animation since the Low Middle Ages, and has had no opportunity to learn English (which he'd probably associate with the hated Saxon invaders, anyway.)

* All the spells in ''[[Rivers of London]]'' are in [[Gratuitous Latin]], but only because they were all codified and written down by Sir [[Isaac Newton]] during the time Latin was the [[Justified Trope|language of choice]] for Gentlemen Scientists. Just no one ever got around to updating them into English.

* A little Latin booklet called ''Quips and Quiddities'' runs on this trope, [[Pretentious Latin Motto]] and [[Canis Latinicus]] all at the same time. It's basically an [[Affectionate Parody]].

* Random Latin phrases appear in the mouths of clergy (and people pretending to be clerics) in ''[[Ivanhoe]].'' A brawl between Friar Tuck and Prior Aymer is particularly memorable for loud threats delivered in bad Latin.

* In addition to the title, the web-novel ''[[Domina]]'' <ref>"the lady," as in the mistress of a house or city</ref> uses Latin in a number of other places. Every chapter title is a Latin word, and one of the major gangs is Necessarius <ref>"necessary"</ref>.

* In 1991, ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'' was translated into Latin and published as ''Winnie Ille Pu''.

* In ''[[The West Wing]]'', when President Bartlet conducts his [[Rage Against the Heavens]] in the National Cathedral, he starts yelling at God in Latin.

** Also, from [[Title Drop|guess which episode]]:

'''C.J.:''' When you learned to speak Latin? }}

* In ''[[Lost]]'' there's "Ille qui nos omnes servabit" which is the answer to the coded phrase "What lies in the shadow of the statue?". It means "He who will preserve/save/keep us all" when correctly translated, or "He who will serve us all" if a common translation error is made.

* In ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', where Howard and Sheldon argue over the type of the cricket they found:

'''Sheldon:''' Hang on! ''(searches in the book)'' Voilà! The snowy tree cricket, AKA ''Oecanthus fultoni'', which is Latin for "I will suck nothing." [[Don't Explain the Joke|I'm joking, of course,]] because the Latin for that is "Nihil exsorbebo." }}

* On ''[[Better Off Ted]]'', Veronica claims that the company motto, which is engraved on the lobby floor, translates to "Money Before People", but it sounds much more heroic in Latin.

* In ''[[Kaamelott]]'', King Loth is fond of meaningless Latin quotes. The Latin language (in the quotes) is mostly legitimate, but Loth's translations are always inaccurate.

* ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' did this in a conversation with Amber-slash-Cutthroat Bitch: (episode is "Don't Ever Change")

'''House:''' And I call you Cutthroat Bitch because, well, ''quod erat demonstratum''<ref>Which was to be proved.</ref>. }}

* [[The Colbert Report|Stephen Colbert]]'s Latin motto is "Videri Quam Esse"<ref>to seem to be rather than to be</ref>, which sums up his character pretty well.

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', the spells and attack names that aren't in Japanese are generally in Latin, sometimes Greek (and once or twice Sanskrit). They're pretty good, too.

** As an example, the incantation for one of Negi's favorite attack spells:

** The series title is sometimes translated into Latin as "Magi Magister Negi," with ''magi magister'' having a rather convenient double meaning as either "magic teacher" or "master of magic" -- both of which describe him quite well <ref>Amusingly, it is also exactly the double meaning implicit in the original Japanese word "Sensei".</ref>.

* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', they bring us the "Memento Mori" "Remember you will die" It's a [[Kill Sat|killsat]] that royally messes up the Middle East before it is destroyed, along with its [[Ax Crazy|commander]]. The [[Big Bad|Innovators]] have another, just in case.

* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]:

** After Jodelet notices that Mountfleury has fallen from grace with the Burgundy's theater public, Bellerose cites the first two words of ''"Sic transit gloria mundi"'' <ref>''Thus passes the glory of the world''</ref>

'''Bellerose''' ''(solemnly):'' Sic transit!... }}

** Act II Scene VII, when a cadet shows the hats of the thugs Cyrano defeated, Captain Carbon says: ''Spolia opima!'' <ref> ''rich spoils/trophies'', refers to the armor, arms, and other effects that an ancient Roman general had stripped from the body of an opposing commander slain in single, hand-to-hand combat.</ref>

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', natives of Cyrodiil, the capital province of [[The Empire]], all have Latin-sounding names. The actual amount of Roman influence on their culture varies from game to game.

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'': :One-Winged Angel", Sephiroth's theme:

''Veni veni venias, ne me mori facias.'' (Come, come, O come, do not let me die.) }}

** All of them from ''[[Carmina Burana]]'', which is a good source of this sort of thing.

** Ace Combat 05: The Unsung War's final mission theme, fittingly named [[Title Drop|The Unsung War]], is also in latin. This time the lyrics are a vulgate translation of the Razgriz poem that recurrently appears through the game, with a lot of repetitions.

* In the background of ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'', Latin has become one of humanity's main languages.

* ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' uses the trope multiple times. ''Dissidia'' itself is derived from the Latin word for discord. The prequel is called ''Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy'', where in 012 is officially pronounced "Duodecim", which is Latin for twelve. The prequel's final secret character, {{spoiler|Feral Chaos}} has Latin names for his HP attacks, such as Deus Iratus<ref>Angered God</ref>, Ventus Irae<ref>Wind of Wrath</ref>, and Lux Magnus<ref>Great Light, should be "Lux Magna," as "lux" is feminine</ref>. This also applies to his [[Limit Break|EX Burst]]: Regnum Dei<ref>Kingdom of God</ref> and its followup: Nex Ultimus<ref>Final Slaughter, should be "Nex Ultima," as "nex" is feminine</ref>.

* Durandal of ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'' has some fun with this: after killing his greatest enemy, he carves the following epitaph [[Deface of the Moon|into a moon]]: "Fatum Iustum Stultorum" ("The Just Fate of Fools"; in other words, "These idiots got what was coming to them.")

* A subversive [http://techhouse.brown.edu/cgi-bin/fluble/vault.pl?date=20000118 example] from ''[[Fluble]]'' (Mind you, Death's Latin is incorrect: ''hystrix'' means "porcupine").

* ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'' [http://www.rhjunior.com/totq/00473.html makes extensive use of Latin in deals with] [[The Fair Folk]].

* ''[[Breakfast of the Gods]]'': Jarvis's final spell is in decent Latin, except for one word in English. Saying what the spell is would be a ''huge'' spoiler for the whole work.

* ''[[Mullein Fields]]'': [http://www.mulleinfields.com/2005/09/13/the-craziest-dream/ Adeo mihi bardus bus!] (See comments for a translation)