The Make-up of the English Vocabulary

essential to the judgm ent he was making, and therefore not binding or
authoritative. Hence the w ords obiter dictum or the plural obiter dicta
are used o f some persons incidental remark or remarks. The w ords rigor
m ortis (rigidity o f death) are in com m on use for the state o f a corpse
after stiffness has set in.

Longer Latin Expressions

There are longer expressions, some o f them quotations from great writers,
w hich have been so m uch used that it may be necessary only to quote
the first words of the saying for the rest to be understood. The words
quot hom ines will be understood to stand for quot homines, tot
sententiae, literally how many m en there are, so many opinions there
are. The English language does not have matching resources to make such
complex comparisons so briefly. The w ords sic transit gloria m u ndi,
meaning thus the glory o f the w orld passes away, will be understood if
the speaker merely says sic transit. Similarly the w ords de m ortuis nil
nisi b onum , meaning only good things should be said of the dead,
will be understood if only the w ords de m ortuis are said. The Latin poet
Horaces famous line D uke et decorum est pro patria m ori, meaning
H ow beautiful and honourable it is to die for o n es country, comes into
the same category. Wilfred Owen called one o f his w ar poems D uke et
Decorum est, and in fact it is perhaps his most horrifying picture o f m en
at the front. It includes a grim account of a soldier choking from a gas
attack, w hom his fellows fling on to a wagon, watching his w hite eyes
w rithing in his hanging face. It was from Horace too that we gained the
expression laudator temporis acti ( praiser o f days gone by), used to
describe someone w ho repeatedly compares the present unfavourably
w ith an idealized past. Juvenals line Orandus est ut sit mens sana in
corpore sano, meaning One should pray to have a sound m ind in a
sound body has left us an expression mens sana in corpore sano, a
healthy m ind in a healthy body, w hich has been cited as an educational
ideal.
In many o f the instances listed above the foreign expression has
advantages o f clarity and brevity as well as a peculiar neatness and
forcefulness. If we take these advantages into account, we should certainly
not think o f condem ning the introduction o f foreign phrases into English
prose. But over-use o f such expressions, or use o f them in inappropriate