Weekly English Words with Alisha Advanced Latin Phrases
Hi, everybody, I’m Alisha. Welcome back to
Weekly Words. This week we’re going to
be talking about advanced Latin phrases. Oh my. If you watched the video from “Intermediate
Latin Phrases” a few weeks ago, you might have noticed that my Latin is not very good.
Let’s start.
The first is “curriculum vitae.” Is that
how you say that? “Curriculum vitae.”
Vi-tai. Vit-ay. “Curriculum vitae.” Vee-tai?
“Curriculum vitae.” You might see this
abbreviated as “CV” when you’re looking
for jobs. Most of the people who are looking
for applicants will request your “CV,”
or your “curriculum vitae,” which is really
just a record of your life, um, your history,
often your work history. You might see it
written on a job form, um, something like,
“All applicants must submit their curriculum
vitae to be considered for the position.”
But most of the time I see it as “CV.”
In American English though, I should point out that you might see “resume” instead,
which is the same, the same exact thing that’s asking for your work history.
Next is “ad hominem.” “Ad hominem”
means to “attack somebody” like when you’re
arguing or having a discussion, but you’re
not actually addressing what the other person
is saying. You’re just attacking that person. So you might say, um, “He was arguing ad
hominem,” meaning, in other words, he was not actually debating the issue, but he was
just attacking the other person in the argument.
“Deus ex machina” is the next word, and
this is a fun word, especially if you like
watching movies. “Deus ex machina” literally means
“God from the machinery,” so anytime you’re watching a movie and suddenly out of nowhere
somebody comes in to save the main character, for, for example, and that’s an example of
“deus ex machina.” If you’re writing,
for example, if you, if you’re writing a
story, it’s typically a good idea not to
use “deus ex machina.” Your teacher might
say, “Don’t use deus ex machina in your
writing,” because it seems kinda cheap,
right? You know, your main character gets
in a jam, and then something amazing happens,
and they’re saved. What’s the fun in that?
The next word, the next phrase, rather, is
“magnum opus.” “Magnum opus” just
refers to, um, usually a “masterpiece” or “someone’s
life’s work,” a huge work. So, like, uh,
maybe Beethoven’s “magnum opus” would
have been his “Fifth,” Beethoven’s “Fifth,”
what was that? A symphony? Yeah. “Beethoven’s
‘Fifth Symphony’ was perhaps his magnum opus.” Hey, there’s a sample sentence right
there, so if you if you have a big project
that you’re working on, maybe, maybe you’re
an architect, maybe you’re a painter, whatever it is. Whatever’s the biggest thing in your
project portfolio, maybe you could refer to
as your “magnum opus.” Your great work,
whatever’s the biggest thing for you.
The next word is “alter-ego.” “Alter-ego”
is kind of a fun word. It means “your other
self,” so, um, you might have seen characters in movies that have an “alter-ego.” In
one situation they behave like one character, but another situation they behave like someone
else, their “alter-ego.” Even some of
you have an “alter-ego,” and it bothers
your friends when you have,
you know, when you behave a certain way with
one group of people and a different way with another group of people. That’s your “alter-ego”
coming out. It’s not always necessarily
a negative thing, like, uh, superheroes have
“alter-egos.” So Clark Kent, for example,
“Clark Kent’s alter-ego is Superman.”
It’s his other self. You’ve Clark Kent and
he’s Superman but in different situations,
he’s one or the other.
That’s it for this one, advanced Latin phrases. I hope you learned some more to build on your
intermediate Latin phrases. I will see you
again next week for more Weekly Words. Bye-bye!