Example 1: Experiencing Latin in the musical
I am currently in matilda the musical, and when practicing music, I came across a part of a song that was in Latin, and although some of it was fake, I think it is pretty funny and definitely still derived from the language. The motto of the imaginary school is "Bambinatum est Maggitum", which "translates" to "Children are Maggots". Later, this is sang in a song, as well as: "circulum est deus". This was not translated for us in the script, but I understood that it means "the circle is god". As well as containing Latin, this song was about the hammer throw (hence the line about the circle), which is an Olympic event that has been around since the ancient Olympics. I had already admired the lyricist of this show, and after exploring the Latin references, I think they just add to the genius of it.
Example 2: English class
Obviously Latin is present in many, many words in the English language, and I recently got to explain this to my parents. I was talking to them about the Colloquium, which is an event where many schools all come together to discuss and appreciate one book. My parents had no idea why it was called that, but it made total since to me to put together "col", which means together, and "loqus", which means language. I explained to them the Latin and how the colloquium was literally a collection of languages, and now I think they understand it better.
Example 3: Chemistry
Of course I had to include this one, the periodic table is classic. maybe I should have put this one first to set your expectations lower. Oh well. In Chemistry class, we are learning about the periodic table, and of course, it's confusing when an element's symbol doesn't contain the same letters as the actual element. Let's take, say, gold for example. Why does the periodic table say "Au"? Well, I can tell you that: "Au" is short for Aurum, which means gold in Latin. Pretty sophisticated, right?
Example 4: Driving
I love drivers ed. It is my favorite thing to do. This, of course, is a lie, but I did happen to notice some Latin amidst the dated, beige, dinosaur of a PowerPoint that I was being forced to endure. They said something about an interstate highway, and I wondered why it was called that. I know that in Latin, "inter" means "between", and the highways take you between states, and it all made sense.
Example 5: Big Bang Theory
This might be my favorite Latin moment. It happened a while ago, but I was watching the Big Bang Theory, and basically, Sheldon said something about not wanting a houseguest because they would run out of food in their earthquake kit faster, and his roommate tells the potential houseguest they can stay as long as they don't become a cannibal. Sheldon then replies by saying:
"he's engaging in Reductio ad Absurdum. It's the logical fallacy of extending someone's argument to ridiculous proportions and criticizing the result, and I do not appreciate it."
I found this extremely funny not only because of the English sitcom humor (although I think the Big Bang Theory has better humor than most), but also because I was able to figure out the Latin. "reductio" - to reduce, "ad" towards, "absurduim" - absurdidy, reducing toward absurdidy, or basically what Sheldon just explained.
Sources:
Big Bang Theory clip- https://youtu.be/ytWGiOuzpe4
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