Most useful Latin phrases to know

So much of the English language comes directly or circuitously through Latin. And although it’s no longer actively spoken, per se, lingua Latina non mortua est! 😜

Rumours of Latin’s death have been greatly exaggerated. On the contrary — I consider many of these Latin phrases to be “mini mental models,” or solid mental model companions, at the very least. Knowing them is good brain food, because they’re liable to come in handy in a number of places.

They’re also helpful for anyone learning or wanting to learn a Romance language — because this family of languages is heavily based on Latin. You’ll recognize many of the word stems in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and so on as deriving from their Latin roots — and it’ll give you a clue as to the meaning even of unfamiliar words as you’re getting up to speed in your new tongue.