In the sometimes entertaining, but often mind-numbing, impeachment debate in the US, something we have been repeatedly hearing lately is the Latin expression "quid pro quo", signifying a favour given in return for something of equal value. Dropping a few Latin words has always been popular amongst politicians, possibly because they think it makes them sound smarter than us ignorant hoi polloi.
Even If you haven't studied the Classics, the frequent use of "quid pro quo" is a reminder of just how many Latin expressions appear in everyday language. It is also good to remind ourselves that "status quo" is not just a wrinkly 1960s rock band.
Thanks to courtroom movies, most people are familiar with "pro bono" when a heroic defence counsel takes on a client without being paid. In the legal world, Latin is very much a living language. I didn't realise the word "alibi", another popular courtroom word, was also of Latin derivation, meaning "being elsewhere".
It is uncertain how familiar President Donald Trump is with Latin, but if he needs any assistance I'm sure the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is always dropping Latin bon mots in his speeches, could lend him a hand.
Recent sessions in the House of Commons featuring Mr Johnson speaking with his customary bluster, have been particularly rowdy with the Speaker having to call for "decorum", another Latin word. In the likelihood that matters get totally out of hand in the coming days, the Speaker, instead of shouting "order! order!" might be advised to shut everyone up with the Latin "non torsii subligarium" a cultured way of saying "don't get your knickers in a twist".
Et cetera
Of course, many other Latin expressions are used on a daily basis, including "ad hoc", "bona fide", "de facto" and "per se". Useful though they may be, they are not the most exciting words and it is probably a good idea to refrain from using them at dinner parties.
If you've ever been to a motivational meeting, there is a good chance someone will come up with a stirring "carpe diem" or roughly "seize the moment" speech, which always seems to go down well, even if it doesn't really mean anything.
Latin abbreviations such as "i.e.", "eg'' and "etc'' come in very useful in the English language. When writing a report or giving a speech and your mind goes totally blank, you might just get away with it by finishing off with an authoritative "et cetera".
Magical mottos
Thailand's Silpakorn University has the Latin motto "ars longa, vita brevis" or "art is long, life is short" which is something you can't really argue with.
Another thought-provoking academic motto comes from Harry Potter's Hogwarts school, "draco dormiens nungquam titillandus", meaning "never tickle a sleeping dragon". I am not a great fan of mottos, but this would appear to be quite sensible advice.
Considering the regular use of Latin in JK Rowling's books, it is probably not surprising a couple of Harry Potter tomes were translated into Latin, featuring a certain "Harrius Potter" and his ginger mate "Ronaldus". Taking on this demanding work was former Eton professor Peter Needham who spoke of his task in classic understatement: "it's an ideal job for an old bloke in retirement".
Blots and smudges
Someone who was not a great fan of Latin was Sir Winston Churchill. I was fortunate enough to have Churchill's autobiography My Early Life as the set book for English Literature O levels, and it was probably his colourful style which helped me scrape through the exams. It certainly wasn't my dismal knowledge of poetry.
Churchill, who was not a great scholar, recalls in the book about when he took a Latin exam and left the page completely blank apart from "a blot and several smudges". That sounds a bit like my French exam papers.
Churchill also described life in the bottom class at Harrow.
"By being in the lowest form I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. They all went on to learn Latin and Greek and splendid things like that… But I was taught English. We were considered such dunces that we could learn only English…Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence -- which is a noble thing."
So, in an admittedly roundabout way, being totally useless at Latin may have contributed to Churchill going on to win the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature, his "brilliant oratory" being cited. US President John F Kennedy later spoke eloquently of Churchill's wartime speeches, remarking "he mobilised the English language and sent it into battle".
The great escape
At school, I was lucky to be given a choice between studying Latin or Commerce and it will come as no surprise I chose the latter. The Latin master at our school had a well-earned reputation of being the scariest teacher on the planet, a gaunt, humourless fellow who was not averse to yielding the cane for little reason other than he felt like it.
I recall smugly watching fellow pupils going into their Latin lessons with a look of scarcely disguised terror as they prepared to do battle with ancient declensions and conjugations. I had enough trouble with French. In fact, my first French report read depressingly, "Tries hard without much success."
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