List of Latin Phrases / L

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Initial L.

laboratory

Laboratory absque laboratories
“Work without effort” - inscription on the Laurenziana
Labor est etiam ipse voluptas.
“Work itself is a pleasure.” - Manilius : Astronomica 4.155
Labor imperantis militum est securitas.
“The security of the soldiers is the task of the commanding officer.” - Caecilius Balbus: Sententiae (F) 103
Laboratory ingenium miseris dat.
“Need gives the unfortunate ideas.” - Manilius: Astronomica 1.80. Corresponds to the German proverb " Necessity makes inventive ".
State seal of the US state Oklahoma with the motto "Labor omnia vincit" in the middle
Labor omnia vicit improbus.
“Hard work conquered everything.” - Virgil , Georgica 1,145f. The poet describes how people's lives changed after the beginning of Jupiter's reign : The pursuit of property and possessions and the associated danger of hardship now force hard work. The complete sentence means:
"Labor omnia vicit improbus et duris urgens in rebus egestas." - "Work has conquered everything, restless and pressing hardship in difficult circumstances."
Laboratory omnia vincit .
"Work conquers everything" - the motto of the US state Oklahoma .
The phrase is borrowed from Virgil's Labor omnia vicit improbus .

Laborare

Laborare orare est.
“To work is to pray.” - A sentence echoing the motto of the Benedictine order Ora et labora (“Pray and work!”).
Laborare pugnare parati sumus.
“We are ready to work or fight”. California Maritime Academy motto

Laborat

Laborat magister docens tardos.
“A teacher who teaches idiots is plagued.” - Augustine : De Musica 4.

Laboremus

Laboremus.
"Let's work." - "To work!" Last word from the emperor Septimius Severus .
Laboremus pro patria.
“Let's work for the fatherland!” - the motto of the Danish Carlsberg brewery

Labores

Labores Herculis
“The labors of Hercules” - Properz : Elegiae 2.23.7–8

Lacrima

Lacrima nihil citius arescit.
"Nothing dries faster than a tear." - Cicero , De inventione 1,109, where the sentence is quoted as a saying of the rhetor Apollonius (probably the speaker of the 2nd century BC).
The anonymous Auctor ad Herennium has (2.50) the sentence in the following formulation: "Nihil (enim) lacrima citius arescit."

Lacrimae

Lacrimae Christi
"Tears of Christ" - wine from the slopes of Vesuvius , famous for good wine and healthy air.
Lacrimae nobis deerunt ante quam causae dolendi.
“We are more likely to run out of tears than to cause suffering.” - Seneca : Ad Polybium de consolatione 4,2
Lacrimae veniam non postulant et merentur.
“Tears do not ask for forgiveness, and yet they deserve them.” - Ambrosius : Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam 10.88

Laesa

Laesa maiestas
" Majesty insult " - The crimen laesae maiestatis is in a monarchy the willful insult or assault that is committed against a ruling monarch.

Laeso

Laeso et invicto militi
"To the wounded, yet undefeated warrior" - inscription of the Berlin Invalidenhaus from 1748, one of the oldest institutions of a kind of war victim welfare in the German-speaking area, which supposedly goes back to the Marquis d'Argens .

Laetus

Laetus variety tua vives sapienter.
"Satisfied with your lot, you live wisely." - Horace , Epistles 1,10,44

Lapidem

Lapidem, non hominem putas.
"You take (me) for a stone, not for a person." - ( Terence : Hecyra 214)

Lapis

Lapis philosophorum
“Philosopher's Stone” - Philosopher's Stone

Lapse

Lapsus calami
"Penetration error" - write error
Lapsus digiti
"Finger mistake" - typo
Lapsus linguae
"Mistake of the tongue" - slip of the tongue
Lapsus memoriae
"Failure of memory" - memory failure

Lassus

Lassus saepe foris maneat ne forte viator,
id circo haec pateat sole cadente domus.
"So that a tired hiker doesn't often stay outside,
this house is open to him when the sun is setting." - Inscription ( elegiac distich ) at the Juliusspital in Würzburg from around 1585.

Latet

Latet anguis in herba.
“There is a serpent lurking in the grass” - Virgil , Eclogue (3.93).
Indication of a hidden danger; literally already through the myth of the death of Eurydice as a result of a snakebite.
Illustration of the Aeneid with the Trojan horse
Latet error; equo ne credite, Teucri.
“There is a fraud behind this; don't trust the horse, Teukrer! ”- Virgil , Aeneid 2.48.
With these words Laocoon warns of the Trojan horse . The next sentence is the famous saying Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.
"Teukrer" is another name for the Trojans after their first king, Teukros or Teucer .

Latinitas

Latinitas culinaria
" Kitchen Latin "

Lauda

Lauda Sion .
“Praise, Zion!” - Sequence of the Feast of Corpus Christi, written by Thomas Aquinas . In the German-speaking world, it is essentially known as "Your Savior, Your Teacher".

Laudator

Laudator temporis acti
“Eulogist of a bygone era” - someone who claims that everything was better in the past. Quotation from the works of the poet Horace ( Ars Poetica 173).

Laudetur

Laudetur Jesus Christ
"Praise be to Jesus Christ" - greeting among Catholic Christians, especially to clergy, and (more often than that) closing of prayers. The answer to that is "In aeternum, Amen" (or "in eternity, Amen".)

louse

Laus alit artes.
"Praise nourishes the arts."
Louse deodorant.
"Praise God!" ("Praise God.") Or "Praise God!"
Louse in ore proprio foetescit.
"Praise in your own mouth stinks." - Compare the German proverb " Self-praise stinks ".

lavabo

Washing one's hands in innocence: Nicolaes Maes - Christ before Pilate (1650)
Lavabo inter innocentes manus meas.
“I will wash my hands among the innocent” - Psalm 26 : 6.

Lavi

Lavi in ​​innocentia manus meas.
“I washed my hands in innocence.” - Pontius Pilate after the condemnation of Jesus .

Legatus

Legatus a latere
“Papal envoy”: Apostolic Nuncio .

Lector

Lector benevole.
"Dear reader!"
Lector intende, laetaberis.
"Note, there will be a laugh." (In the translation by August von Rode )
With these words Apuleius turns to the reader in The Golden Ass at the end of Chapter I, 1.
This quote is used - like Apuleius - to point out the humorous character of the following, for example in the case of collections of style flowers etc.

Lectori

Lectori salutem.
"Greetings to the reader!"

Lay

Put artis
“According to the rules of the art” - according to regulations. This means that an action was carried out in accordance with the recognized rules and using all knowledge and technical and personal skills and knowledge. The term plays a role in liability law, especially in the liability of members of the liberal professions (doctor, lawyer, architect and the like).

Legem

Legem brevem esse oportet.
“A law must be short.” - The whole sentence of Poseidonius , which Seneca ( Epistulae 94, 38) quotes - rejecting him - reads:
Legem brevem esse oportet, quo facilius from imperitis teneatur. "-" A law must be short so that it can be remembered all the more easily by the ignorant . "
The following Justinian quote can also be seen in this context:
Simplicitas legibus amica. “-“ Simplicity is the friend of the law. "

Leges

Leges humanae nascuntur, vivunt, et moriuntur.
"Human laws are born, live and die."
University of Pennsylvania Coat of Arms
Leges sine moribus vanae.
“Laws without morality are useless.” - Motto of the University of Pennsylvania

Legi

Legi, intellexi, condemnavi.
“I read, understood and condemned.”: Words from a letter from the Roman emperor Julian to the leading bishops, with which he rejected Christian doctrine. He formulated this in Greek: Ἀνέγνων, ἔγνων, κατέγνων.

Legibus

Legum denique idcirco omnes servi sumus, ut liberi esse possimus.
“We all obey the law only in order to be free.” - Cicero , Pro Cluentio 53, 146.
Legibus solutus
“ Relieved of the laws” - The sentence is in the oldest surviving version “princeps legibus solutus” ( Ulpian , Digesten 1, 3, 31) and describes the fact that the Roman emperors were able to be liberated from individual laws. In the later imperial era it was understood that the emperor was above the law in general, and with this intention the sentence became the maxim of rule in absolutism , restricted however by the clause that the ruler may only act for the good of the state.

Legio

Legio patria nostra.
“The Legion is our fatherland.” - the motto of the French Foreign Legion

Leo

Leo terram propriam protegat.
“The lion protect his own country.” - the motto in the coat of arms of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Leti

Leti mille repente viae.
“A thousand ways now suddenly lead to death.” - Quotation from the elegies of the poet Albius Tibullus (1,3,50).

Levius

Levius fit patientia, quidquid corrigere est nefas.
"Patience makes it easier to blame what is sacrilege."
Horace (Carmina 1,24,19 f.) In a consolation poem to Virgil on the death of his childhood friend Quinctilius Varus .

Lex

Lex dubia non obligatory.
"A dubious law is not binding."
Lex mihi ars.
"Art is my law."
Lex posterior derogat priori.
"Later law breaks earlier law" - Lex posterior rule ; see also Lex specialis derogat legi generali .
Lex posterior generalis non derogat legi speciali priori.
"General later law does not break specific earlier law."
Lex specialis derogat legi generali.
“Special law breaks general law.” - Lex specialis rule ; see also Lex posterior derogat priori .
Lex superior derogat legi inferiori.
“The higher law cancels the lower.” - Federal law breaks state law according to Article 31 of the Basic Law.
Lex talionis
“Law of Retribution” - Right to Retaliate . The expression eye for eye is a special case of this.

Libenter

Libenter homines id, quod volunt, credunt.
“People like to believe what they want.” - Caesar .

Liber

Liber signatum septem sigillis
“A book marked with seven seals” - quote from the Revelation of John (5.1).

Libera

libera res publica
"Free State" - republic in today's sense. While res publica can simply mean “state”, the precise name for the Roman republic was libera res publica .

Libertas

Coat of arms of the Republic of San Marino with the motto "Libertas"
Libertas academica
" Academic Freedom "
Libertas est potestas faciendi id, quod iure licet.
"Freedom is the possibility to do what is allowed by law." - Legal statement, origin not proven.
Libertas Securitas Iustitia
"Freedom, security, justice" - Frontex motto .

Liberty

Libertatem quam peperere maiores digne studeat servare posteritas .
"The descendants should strive to preserve the freedom that the ancestors have achieved with dignity!" - Inscription on Hamburg City Hall .

Liberum

Liberum arbitrium
“Free will” - Free discretion
Liberum veto
"The free veto"

Licentia

Licentia poetica
Poetic freedom ” - quote from the works of the philosopher Seneca
Licentia vatum
"Freedom of the poets" - " Poetic freedom ", quotation from the works of the poet Ovid ( Amores III 12, 41-42):
Exit in immensum fecunda licentia vatum, obligat historica nec sua verba fide. "
The freedom of the poet proceeds creatively without limits, does not bind the imagination to historical value. "

Ligna

Ligna in silvam ferre
“Carrying wood into the forest” - Compare “Carrying owls to Athens”.

Ligneis

Ligneis equis insidere
"Sitting in wooden horses" - cunning like the Greeks in the Trojan horse . Origin not verifiable.

Lignum

Lignum quod tortum, haud umquam vidimus rectum.
“You have never seen wood that is crooked become straight.” - proverb
Lignum tortum haud umquam rectum.
"A crooked wood will never straighten." - Erasmus von Rotterdam : Adagia 1942 (after Diogenianos)

Limbus

Domenico Beccafumi : Jesus in Limbus (ca.1530)
Limbus infantium or Limbus puerorum
“Suburb of the children” - place for the souls of unbaptized children who did not come to the use of reason before they died.
Limbus patrum
“Suburb of the Fathers” - place for the souls of the dead righteous of the time before Jesus Christ . There is nobody in the limbus patrum today because Christ led all his inmates to heaven.

Lingua

Lingua Tertii Imperii
“Language of the Third Reich” - essay by Victor Klemperer with the exact title LTI - Notebook of a Philologist . The title is a parody of the countless abbreviations from the language of the Nazi era such as BDM , HJ , DAF , KdF etc.
Lingua gravius ​​castigatur quam ullum probrum.
“A blasphemous tongue is more difficult to punish than an outrage.” - Curtius Rufus : Historiae Alexandri Magni 4.6,6
Lingua haeret metu.
“My tongue sticks with fear.” - Terence : Eunuchus 977
Lingua ligata tibi multos acquirit amicos.
“If you control your tongue, you will make many friends.” - Monosticha Catonis A51

Liquids

Liquida non frangunt ieiunium.
"Liquid doesn't break the fast."
also potus non frangit ieiunum
Rule of thumb for the conditions of " fasting " (in the technical sense) of the Catholic Church, which is the restriction to one meal a day (plus two small so-called collations) (still prescribed today in this form on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday): Even outside of the Meals are allowed to drink beverages ("as drinks"), even if they happen to have nutritional value (beer, fruit juice spritzer, coffee with one teaspoon each of milk and sugar, etc.). The saying is not exactly accurate, however, because milk has always broken the fast (also meat and vegetable broth, poured instant flakes, etc.).
The saying has nothing to do with fasting in the sense of abstinence from meat dishes or adherence to a freely chosen fasting resolution such as the typical abstinence from sweets.

Litterae

Littera Pythagorica
"Pythagorean letter": Y-shaped thief cross in heraldry .
Litterae Bellerophontes
"Bellerophontesbrief" - letter with the order to kill the bearer. Bellerophontes was sent by King Proitus to his father-in-law Iobates , with the news that he would kill the bearer.
Variant of Bellerophontis tabellae .

Loci

Loci communes
Common places ” - Today, a term that is often pejorative for generally recognized, that is, sentences that cannot be further proven, which are invoked in order to gain arguments from them. In the classical theory of rhetoric of the Greeks and Romans, its application was a separate part of the rhetoric. Singular : locus communis .
Specifically, the abbreviation of a work by Philipp Melanchthon , which represents the first dogmatics of the Protestant Church : Loci communes rerum theologicarum ( “General basic concepts of theology” ).
Loci theologici
“Theological places” - “places of theological knowledge”, term from Protestant and Catholic dogmatics and theological theory of knowledge. See Locus theologicus .

Loco

Loco citato
"At the specified place"
Loco sigilli
"Instead of the seal" - Certified by signature.

Locum

Locum tenens
"Placeholder" - term for (church) officials who temporarily lead an office, as a representative for a vacancy, also with the exception of canon law as a second function to their own office, e.g. B. Acting Patriarch of Constantinople in addition to the function of Patriarch of Alexandria.
Derived from this lieutenant . The lieutenant was the deputy military leader. See also governor .

Locus

Locus amoenus: Thomas Cole - Dream of Arcadia (ca.1838)
Locus amoenus
"Lovely place" - literary topos .
See also Et in Arcadia ego .
Locus communis
" Commonplace " - a trite expression. See loci communes .
Locus classicus
"A classic passage" - quote from a classic text, which is used as an example for something else.
Locus delicti
"Place of the crime" - crime scene
Locus minoris resistentiae
"Place of lesser resistance", especially Achilles' heel .
Locus sigilli
“Place of the seal” - In transcripts of documents, the abbreviation “LS” for “ loco sigilli ” denotes the fact that the original is provided with a seal (nowadays this is mostly a stamp).
Locus standi
"Location" point of view .
Locus theologicus
“Theological place” - “place of theological knowledge”, term from Protestant and Catholic dogmatics and theological theory of knowledge.

Lunge

Lunge absit.
"Far be it!"
Longe fugit, qui suos fugit.
“He who flees his own will flee far.” - Latin subtitle of a satire by Menippus of Gadara , mostly attributed to the Roman writer Varro .
Longe lateque
"Far and wide"

Lorem

Lorem ipsum , in Gill Sans set
Lorem ipsum
"(Neque porro quisquam est, qui do) lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit ..." - A mutilated fragment from Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum ( From the highest good and greatest evils ), which in typography as dummy text is used .
The text itself is not correct Latin due to omissions, additions and changes, even the first word " Lorem " does not exist. Nevertheless, one recognizes a number of obviously Latin words in the text. The origin of the phrase was probably determined in the 1960s by the American Latin teacher Richard McClintock in a text passage in " De finibus bonorum et malorum ", sections 1.32 and 1.33, by Cicero , very probably in the Latin-English edition in Loeb Classical Library , where after a word break on page 34 ( do- ) page 36 begins with lorem ipsum .
" Neque porro quisquam est, qui do lorem ipsum , quia dolor sit , amet , consectetur , adipisci velit [...] "
"There is no one who loves pain itself, who searches for it and wants it, simply because it is pain [...]"

Luctor

Coat of arms of Zeeland
Luctor et emergo
“I'll wrestle and get up” - the motto of the Dutch province of Zeeland , which has wrested a large part of its land from the sea. The coat of arms therefore also shows the Dutch lion, who is up to the waist in the water.

Lucus

Lucus a non lucendo
“The word 'grove' comes from not lighting up.”: Used as a particularly absurd example of the etymological derivation of a term from its opposite. In this kind of folk etymology it is assumed that the word for grove (lucus) is related to the similar word for lights (lucere).
Example of theories for word origins that were seriously defended in antiquity. Lucus a non lucendo can be found in Servius , and Quintilian already explains in his work De institutione oratoria (1,6,34): "etiam contrariis aliqua (sc. Nomina) sinemus trahi, ut lucus quia umbra opacus parum luceat" ("also some terms can be derived from the opposite, such as grove [lucus], because it is dark with shadow and has little light [lucet] ”).
Servius cites “bellum a nulla re bella” (“war because there is nothing beautiful in it”) as a further example .
See also canis a non canendo .

Ludendum

Ludendum licite, talos abbate ferente.
"You can play when the abbot rolls the dice."

Ludi

Ludi incipiant
"Let the games begin"
Ludi Paganorum
"Games of the Gentiles"

Ludos / Ludus

ludos facere
“Make games” - “ fool you ”, compare modern warning “Don't play games with me!” With the comedians, such as Plautus , Menaechmi 405 (2,3): Iam, amabo, desiste ludos facere atque i hac mecum semul . "I beg you, stop joking and come into this house with me."
Ludus ad iudices
"The game to the judges" - The children's game robbers and gendarmes in the Historia Augusta (Septimius Severus 1,4)

Lumens

Lumen naturale
"The natural light" - reason.
Lumen soli mutuum das.
"You borrow light from the sun." - Superfluous instruction
Lumen supranaturale
"The supernatural light" - the divine reason.

Lupus

Lupus est homo homini.
"A wolf is man to man."
It has become proverbial in the variant homo homini lupus , also quoted as homo hominis lupus (“Man is a wolf to man” or “Man is man's wolf”). The sentence means that in the state of nature each person is an enemy of the other.
He became famous for the dedication Thomas Hobbes gave to Earl William of Devonshire in his work De Cive ("About the Citizen"):
“[…] Both sayings are very true; That Man to Man is a kind of God; and that Man to Man is an arrant Wolfe. "
"It is true both that man is godlike to man, and that man is uncovered a wolf to man."
See also homo homini deus .
Originally the word is in the comedy " Asinaria " ("The Donkey Comedy") by Plautus (Act 2, Scene 4, 495):
"Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit."
"A wolf, not a person, is man to man as long as he does not know what kind he is."
Lupus in fabula
Lupus in fabula is a game with the double meaning of the word "fabula", both "fable" and "entertainment". The translation can therefore be “(How) the wolf in the fable” or “The wolf of which we are speaking”.
The word expresses astonishment at the unexpected appearance of a person who has just been talked about. Corresponds to the German proverb “If you name the devil, he'll come running”.
The origin of the quote is probably a fable by Aesop , "The wolf and the wet nurse" or "The wolf and the shepherd boy" . In the first, the wet nurse threatens a child that if it is not quiet, she will give it to the wolf to eat. When the wolf comes to fetch the child, the wet nurse fetches the dogs and drives him away. The second fable is about a shepherd boy who, out of boredom, shouts “The wolf!” To watch the villagers rush over. When later a wolf really comes and the boy calls again, nobody comes to the rescue.
The expression lupus in fabula or lupus in sermone appears several times in Roman literature, for example in Terenz (Adelphi) , Plautus (Stichus) or Cicero (letters to Atticus) ; obviously it was a common phrase.
At Terence, Ctesiphon talks to his slave Syrus about Ctesiphon's father. The son hopes the father will stay away as long as possible. Suddenly Syrus pauses in the middle of the conversation when he notices his father:
Syrus: […] em tibi autem! Ctesipho: Quidnam est? Syrus: Lupus in fabula. ( Adelphi , act 4, scene 1, 21)
Syrus: [...] Watch out! Ktesiphon: What's going on? Syrus: The wolf one speaks of.
At Plautus' , Pamphilus and Epignomus talk about the absent antiphon, whether they should invite him or not. As this approaches, Epignomus says:
"Atque eccum tibi lupum in sermone : Praesens esuriens adest." ( Stichus , act 4, scene 1, 577)
"Now look at the wolf of which one speaks: the hungry is already there!"
Lupus non curat numerum.
“The wolf doesn't care about the number.” - That means, he also eats the counted sheep. According to Virgil , Eclogen 7.51 f., Where it says:
"Hic tantum Boreae curamus frigora quantum / aut numerum lupus aut torrentia flumina ripas" ("Here we care about the cold of the north wind as much as / about the number of wolves or the raging rivers around the banks").
Lupus pilum mutat, non mentem.
"A wolf changes its hair, but not its intention."

lux

Lux aeterna
“Eternal light”: opening words of part of the funeral mass
Lux et dux
"Light and Guide"
Lux et veritas
"Light and Truth": Motto of Yale University , New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Lux in tenebris
"Light in the Darkness" - title of numerous secret textbooks of the 16th and 17th centuries .: The philosophers of the Enlightenment used light and darkness as metaphors for the use of reason and its lack. Also the motto of the former British Protectorate Nyassaland .
Lux mundi
"Light of the world"

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/vergil/geo1.shtml
  2. ^ Justinian Inst. 3, 2, 3
  3. ^ Cicero's work "De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33)