A Word in Spanish (or French or Latin...)

Aug 24, 2001 - © Barb Alexander

To add a bit of flavor and dash to our writing and speech, we often like to pepper the English language with words and phrases from other languages to get our point across. This method of spicing things up is not a problem if used sparingly. Don't send your reader (or conversational partner) running for a translating dictionary! As in most things, less is more.

The following list is not an exhaustive one, but is an attempt to touch on some frequent foreign visitors to English writing:

ad nauseam
Latin for "to a sickening degree"

aficiando
Spanish for "an ardent fan"

bete noire
French for "something to be avoided"

carpe diem
Latin for "seize the day" (You remember Dead Poets Society, right?)

carte blanche
French for, basically, "do whatever you'd like"

caveat emptor
Latin for "let the buyer beware" (Okay, raise your hand if, like me, you learned this from that Brady Bunch episode where Greg buys the lemon car.)

dolce vita
Italian for "the good life" or literally "the sweet life"

Doppelganger
German for "ghostly double of a person who is alive"

flagrante delicto
Latin for "in the act"

hoi polloi
Greek for "the common people" (Keep in mind that "the hoi polloi" while frequently used, is redundant and incorrect.)

je ne sais quoi
French for "I don't know what"

mea culpa
Latin for "I'm to blame"

mot juste
French for "the appropriate word"

nom de plume
French for "pen name"

pro bono
Latin for "done for free"

sine qua non
Latin for "an essential element or condition"

vox populi
Latin for "the voice of the people"

The copyright of the article A Word in Spanish (or French or Latin...) in English Grammar is owned by Barb Alexander. Permission to republish A Word in Spanish (or French or Latin...) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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