List of winged words / C
Ça ira!
The American statesman and writer Benjamin Franklin was sent to France as envoy of the thirteen United States in 1777 - before the outbreak of the French Revolution - and when asked about the progress of the revolution in America, answered with the short one French phrase:
- “ Ça ira! "
- “ It will be okay! "
Ça ira is the beginning of a battle song from the time of the French Revolution, which was written in 1790. It called for a fight against the aristocracy, clergy and nobility.
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Ça ira is also a collection of six poems by the German writer Ferdinand Freiligrath .
Canossa gang
The trip to Canossa was a milestone in the investiture dispute . In the 11th and 12th centuries, the emperor and the pope fought over the power of the church, for example over the right of investiture, i.e. the right to appoint bishops and abbots to their offices. In the course of the investiture controversy, Pope Gregory VII imposed the ban on King Henry IV:
- "I renounce King Heinrich (...) the rule over the empire of the Germans and Italy, detach all Christians from the oath they have given him (...) and forbid anyone to serve him as king from now on (... and) I bind him as your [ie God's] representative with the fetters of the excommunication. "
From a medieval perspective, this meant freedom from birds . Heinrich was thus also denied all ecclesiastical sacraments such as marriage, absolution, anointing of the sick and a burial in a church cemetery. In order to be released from this spell, Heinrich, of course with his army and entourage, went over the Alps to Italy to meet the Pope. He withdrew to Canossa Castle for fear of an attack, but Heinrich did not besiege him, but came barefoot in front of the castle for several days with his wife and child and asked the Pope for forgiveness, which Gregor finally granted him. By lifting the ban, Heinrich regained a large part of his freedom of action.
In 1872 this event was taken up by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in his speech to the Reichstag with the sentence “Don't worry, we're not going to Canossa - neither physically nor mentally”. This was preceded by a dispute with the Catholic Church, the so-called Kulturkampf , in which the Pope rejected the German ambassador to the Holy See.
Capua of the spirits
This is what the playwright Franz Grillparzer called the Austrian capital in his poem Farewell to Vienna , published in 1843 . Grillparzer compares Vienna with ancient Capua , whose lavish well-being took away Hannibal's warriors' desire to fight. Similarly, Vienna is slacking off its artistic powers, since the artists are only occupied with the passive recording of the beautiful around them:
You are beautiful, but also dangerous.
Your summer breath blows annoyingly
to the student as to the master
,
you capua of the spirits!
This not very flattering comparison equates Vienna with the ancient city, which has become proverbial for its luxury and which overflowed from the Romans to the victorious Carthaginians after the Battle of Cannae .
Carpe Diem
"Seize the day", literally "pick the day".
The film “ The Dead Poets Club ” from 1989 has recently contributed to popularization. “ Carpe Diem ” is the central tenet of this film. Man should make something special out of his life; every single life should be or become an extraordinary one.
Catch-22
Catch-22 is usually with dilemma , impasse , vicious or predicament translated (for Catch-22 situation) into German.
Cause celebre
The term used in educational language for a famous or notorious dispute or criminal case goes back to the French lawyer François Gayot de Pitaval , who in his work Causes célèbres et intéressantes, avec les jugemens qui les ont décidées between 1734 and 1743 famous and interesting in twenty volumes Compiled legal cases with the associated judgments.
Initially, the Pitavals collection formed the model and finally the generic term “ Pitaval ” for the collection of sensational criminal cases such as “ The new Pitaval ” by Julius Eduard Hitzig and Willibald Alexis , Egon Erwin Kisch's “ Prager Pitaval ” and a large number of other collections.
- Examples
Cause célèbre is also a poem by the writer August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , which begins with the following stanza:
Dear Sirs, what are you researching,
whether I am a poet?
I didn't do anything for you,
I only thought of the people,
The people only are my judges.
Ceterum censeo.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam (Latin: Incidentally, I am of the opinion that Carthage must be destroyed. ) Is a saying attributed to Cato who applied for the destruction of Carthage at every Senate session . Cato was of the opinion that the world power position of Rome could not be achieved without the destruction of the most important Phoenician trading port.
The sentence is originally transmitted in ancient Greek:
"Dokei de moi kai Karchēdona mē einai."
"And it seems to me good that Carthage is no more either"
Based on this, one speaks today of a "Ceterum Censeo" when someone persistently repeats a demand.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam is a poem that the German writer August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote in exile in Switzerland and in which he complains that “there is still an enemy in the German fatherland” that plagues people. It ends with the following stanzas:
The executioner and the flayer are dishonorable in the
German audience,
So be it the German censor no less: he
kills souls.
So come on, men, women, old men and children,
avenge our country's misery!
A censor is even worse than the flayer -
the censor curse and death!
Chacun à son goût.
This French saying has the meaning "everyone to his taste" and became known through the couplet I like to invite guests of Prince Orlowsky from the operetta Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss . In his house the guests were granted every freedom. The couplet is:>
I like to invite guests,
I live very well, I talk
as one likes,
Often until daylight.
It is true that I am always bored with
whatever
one is doing and talking,
but whatever is up to me as the host,
I do not tolerate guests.
And if I see that
someone here with me ennuyiert himself,
So I grab him quite unabashedly,
Throw him out the door.
And ask, please,
why am I doing this?
It's my custom:
Chacun à son goût!
In the colloquial language of Berlin, the phrase apparently used to appear: "Everyone according to their Chacun."
Cherchez la femme!
Cherchez la femme is a French idiom that has been adopted into German and means something like: "There's a woman behind it!"
When French was still the language of education in the 19th century, this expression made its way into upscale German conversation. Meyer's encyclopedia from 1888 writes:
“'Où est la femme?' ('Where is the woman?'), French criminalist saying that in the event of a cunning criminal attack you have to look for the woman who is behind it, hence the quote: Cherchez la femme! ('Looking for the woman!'). "
The sentence Il ya une femme dans toutes les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: Cherchez la femme is the motto of the police officer Jackal in the novel about the Parisian underworld Les Mohicains de Paris (The Mohicans of Paris) by the elder Alexandre Dumas .
Christel from the post office
This name comes from the performance song " Letter Christel " in Carl Zeller's operetta The Bird Dealer , which is about a couple in love, the bird dealer Adam and the postman Christel. The song begins with the following lines:
I'm the Christel from the post office;
The salary is small and the fare is low.
But that does
n't matter when you're still young - if you're not sick when you're in the swing of things.
You can take it
without complaining
.
The song ends with the verses:
A kiss
if I have to.
Just not right away, not on the spot,
because the post office doesn't go that fast!
Chronique scandaleuse
This French expression, which is translated into German as scandal chronicle, describes the events under King Ludwig XI. , recorded in the diary of the secretary John II, the Duke of Bourbon. The font was originally called Chroniques du très-chréstien et victorieux Louys de Valois . Only a bookseller who reprinted this font in 1611 is said to have given it the title Chronique scandaleuse .
The term refers to a collection of scandalous and gossip stories from an era or a specific milieu.
Citius, altius, fortius.
Citius, altius, fortius (Latin, in German: faster, higher, stronger ) is today's motto of the Olympic Games . It was proposed by Pierre de Coubertin based on an idea by the French Dominican monk Henri Didon , who used these words to present a pennant to the members of his school sports club on the occasion of the opening of the first school sports festival of the Dominican College Albertus-Magnus in Arcueil on March 7, 1891 Request that this should accompany you “often to victory, always to competition”. Pierre de Coubertin, General Secretary of the French Association of Schoolchildren Sports Clubs was present as the competition director and had obviously internalized this motto. A few days later he quoted this statement in a short report on the course of these competitions in the specialist magazine Les Sport Athlétiques .
In 1894 Coubertin apparently suggested these three words as a motto at the closing session of the founding congress of the IOC . The bulletin stated:
“Mr Bréal ended [his dinner speech] by eloquently interpreting the famous sporting motto formulated by Father Didon and accepted by the Congress; Citius, Fortius, Altius: faster, stronger, further. "
The terms “altius” and “fortius” were interchanged in this formulation. Presumably, stylistic reasons were decisive. In 1921 this motto appeared on official IOC printed matter along with the Olympic rings.
Civis Romanus sum.
Persecuted people in the Roman Empire invoked their Roman citizenship with the Latin sentence Civis romanus sum ( I am a Roman citizen ) .
The Acts This rate, kept the Apostle Paul before the crucifixion . As a Roman citizen, he was executed by the sword.
In the 19th century, the British statesman Lord Palmerston, in his "Civis Romanus sum" speech, demanded that the British Empire should protect its citizens in the same way as the Roman Empire once did its citizens who were abroad.
Cogito, ergo sum.
Cogito, ergo sum , I think, therefore I am, is the Latin translation of the French Descartian definition: "Je pense donc je suis". His famous thesis also appears in his work The Principles of Philosophy :
- " Ego cogito, ergo sum. "
This is a conclusion methodically formulated by René Descartes , which he formulates in his work Meditationes de prima philosophia , following his radical doubts about his own capacity for knowledge, as a foundation that cannot be further criticized .
The reverse sum, ergo cogito is a poem by the writer August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , which begins with the following stanza:
Let us sink our spirits
into the deep sea of knowledge!
Let's think, always think!
Eh, that adorns the Germans very much.
And if you ask us: how are you?
Let's say: we always think.
Coincidentia Oppositorum
This Latin philosophical term ( coincidence of opposites ) is a central concept in the thinking of canon lawyer Nikolaus von Kues . Using the example of the circular line, which coincides with the straight line at an infinitely large radius of the circle, he clarifies his idea of God as an all-embracing being in which the most contradicting things are embedded.
Condicio sine qua non
The condicio-sine-qua-non formula (from Latin condicio sine qua non ; "condition without which not") is a method in jurisprudence and legal practice as well as philosophy with which it is determined whether a process or an action is determined is the cause of a certain fact.
The assessment of causality is important in criminal law and tort law, for example.
corpus delicti
The Latin term Corpus Delicti describes a piece of evidence through which a perpetrator of the crime can be convicted, such as the murder weapon. The term goes back to the legal scholar Prosper Farinacius (1544–1613), who in his Latin script Variae Quaestiones ("Various Questions") , published in 1581, used it to describe the entire offense :
"Primum Inquisitionis requisitum est probatio corporis delicti."
"The first requirement of judicial investigation is the examination of the facts."
Corriger la fortune
This is a French euphemistic description for “playing wrong” and literally means “correcting luck”.
The phrase is first found in Boileau's 5th satire to the Marquis de Dangeau from 1665 in the description of a decrepit nobleman who wants to improve his circumstances by selling his ancestral portraits.
Corriger la fortune is probably the most famous quote from Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's comedy Minna von Barnhelm , in which a burned-down player and released soldier successfully tries to get fresh money from Minna von Barnhelm for new stakes.
So fan tutte.
The opera Così fan tutte ossia La scuola degli amanti (Italian: This is how everyone (women) or The School of Lovers ) is a comic opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart based on a text by Lorenzo da Ponte .
The young officers Ferrando and Guglielmo boast that the two sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi, who love them more than anything, could never be unfaithful to them. Don Alfonso, however, has his own experience and therefore suggests that Ferrando and Guglielmo make a bet if they were so sure. Meanwhile, the women in the garden of the house rave to each other about the unbreakable love of their partners.
The opera was controversial for a long time. Shortly after Mozart's death, the amoral textbook was criticized.
Courage is good, but perseverance is better.
This view is expressed by the main character Dubslav von Stechlin in Chapter 4 of Theodor Fontane's novel Der Stechlin to a regimental comrade of his son. He is referring to the great time of the Holy Alliance :
“It's only big when things almost go wrong, when you have to fear every moment: 'Now it's all over.' There it shows. Courage is good, but perseverance is better. Perseverance is the main thing. "
The quote affirms one's intention to achieve a goal through patience and to refrain from risky actions.
Credo, quia absurdum.
This Latin sentence goes back to the Latin church writer Tertullian and means:
- “ I believe because it is contrary to common sense. "
In Tertullian's writing De carne Christi it says:
- “ Et mortuus est Dei Filius; prorsus credibile, quia ineptum est. "
- “The fact that God's Son died is downright a matter of faith because it is inconsistent (and incomprehensible). "
The point is that certain beliefs are so inconceivable that one can imagine that they are actually true rather than the thought of anyone. A literal interpretation that one has to believe completely contrary to meaningful statements was contradicted by the Scholastic passim.
Credo, ut intellegam.
This Latin phrase comes from the theologian Anselm of Canterbury and means:
- “ I believe so that I know. "
Anselm is referring to the prophet Isaiah :
- “ If you do not believe, you will not understand. "
He also quotes the church father Augustine , who put it in his Tractatus in Sanctum Joannem :
- " Credimus ut cognoscamus, non cognoscimus ut credamus. "
- “ We believe so that we may know; we don't know in order to believe. "
Anselm was of the opinion that belief should also be interpreted with philosophical means.
Crème de la crème
Crème de la crème is an often ironically used French expression that appears for the first time in the Leipzig magazine Die Grenzbote from 1842. It is still used today in the sense of “the highest representative of the upper class of society”.
The word cream or cream is derived from the French word "cream" (= cream, cream) from the Latin "chrisma" and the "chriein" her Greek, which means anointed and is etymologically related to the word Christ .
Cui bono?
“ Cui bono ” (“Who is it good for?”) Is the central Latin question in forensics about the motive for solving a crime. This is a quote that Marcus Tullius Cicero cites in his speeches Pro Milone and Pro Roscio Amerino as a saying by the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla. In Roman court judgments, the question played Cui bono? played an important role because Roman jurisprudence was utilitarian and avoided passing judgments that would not benefit anyone.
The philosopher and playwright Lucius Annaeus Seneca used the expression slightly modified in his tragedy Medea :
"Cui prodest scelus, is fecit."
"Whoever benefits from the crime has committed it."
Cuius regio, eius religio.
The Latin quote Cuius regio, eius religio ("Wes the land, of the faith") said that whoever exercises power determines religion in his area. During the Reformation , this principle was converted into a legal rule in Germany under the name Jus reformandi . With the Passau Treaty of 1552 and the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555 , a political stalemate between emperors, Lutheran and Catholic rulers of the Holy Roman Empire was transformed to the effect that everyone in their territory can determine the denomination practiced there .
On the one hand, this legal principle meant that the subjects could possibly be forced to change their denomination by their sovereign. The only possibility to defend oneself against it - and the Augsburg Religious Peace also provided for this legal claim - was the freedom to emigrate.
This formula was coined by the Greifswald canonist Joachim Stephani , who reduced the result of the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555 to the formula of four words.
The psychoanalyst Alexander Mitscherlich writes in his book The Inability to Mourn :
“Cuius regio, eius religio also applies to today's empires of totalitarian rule. The legitimacy of being allowed to form a personal morality is historically much more recent. It is a hard-won concession to tolerance. "
Cum grano salis
The Latin expression cum grano salis goes back to a passage in the "natural history" of Pliny the Elder , where he writes that the effect of an antidote can only be guaranteed by adding a grain of salt . Pliny writes that General Pompey had found a remedy for snake venom and recommends adding a grain of salt to the remedy when ingesting it, addito salis grano , which has been transformed to cum grano salis ( with a grain of salt ).
It is unclear whether Pliny had doubts about the effectiveness of the recipe and therefore ironically recommended the addition of salt.
The term is mostly used today to restrict a statement and to draw the listener's attention to the fact that what has been said may not be taken literally in all respects. In today's parlance it has roughly the meaning of “with restrictions”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ fordham.edu
- ^ Christian Jäger, Erhard H. Schütz: City images between literature and journalism: Vienna, Berlin and the feature pages of the Weimar Republic . Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-8244-4349-X , p. 32.
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^ August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben : Cause célèbre . Quoted from
Cause célèbre on zeno.org - ↑ Büchmann: Winged words
- ^ August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben : Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam . Quoted from Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam on zeno.org
- ↑ The bat . Quoted from: opera-guide.ch
- ^ Konrad Telmann : Bohémiens . Berlin 1895, p. 257
- ↑ dwds.de
- ↑ Quoted from: operettenfuehrer.de
- ↑ On the origin of the designation
- ↑ sport.uni-mainz.de (PDF; 665 kB)
- ↑ August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben : Sum, ergo cogito . Quoted from Sum, ergo cogito on zeno.org
- ↑ Georg Büchmann : Winged words . Quoted from: susning.nu
- ↑ Isaiah . 7.9
- ↑ thelatinlibrary.com L. Annaei Senecae Medea, verse 500 f.
- ↑ Alexander Mitscherlich : The inability to mourn. Basics of collective behavior . 1967, p. 167
- ↑ Pliny the Elder : Naturalis historia XXIII, 149