Loan proverbs

[Baker, John]

        Wikipedia has a page,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Latin_phrases, that is devoted to
Latin phrases.  Not all of these are proverbs, but it does include
"Carpe diem," "Et tu, Brute?" and the like, which would seem to be what
you are looking for.  A longer list is at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases.  I don't know if
they have anything like this for other languages; there is nothing at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:French_phrases, for example.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Charles Doyle
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 3:28 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Loan proverbs

Our recent ruminations about "Inter faeces et urinam nascimur" got me
thinking about the (not-very-large?) category that I'll call LOAN
PROVERBS--proverbs uttered in a foreign language within English
discourse--as distinct from "calqued" proverbs or proverbs that simply
have analogs in other tongues or pseudo-foreign constructions like "Nil
illigitimi carborundum." And "true" proverbs--propositions consisting of
entire sentences--not just phrases or idioms.

Last night on TV Dr. House said "Veni, vidi, vici." Then there are
"C'est la vie" and "Che sara sara." "Cogito ergo sum"?

What others?

--Charlie

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