Loan proverbs

[sagehen]

>The problem is not the discovery of phrases or even sentences in Latin and
>other languages, but the determination of whether they can properly be
>called PROVERBIAL in English-speaking contexts.
>
>A proverb would be used, orally (let's say), in a definable "folk group"
>the members of which would understand the saying as traditional and might
>on occasion themselves say it--not as a quotation, though, or a learned
>allusion (such expressions would be called aphorisms or sententiae). It's
>hard to be very precise here. A group of scholars could certainly
>constitute a folk group; still, not every Latin sentence they might utter
>would be proverbial.
>
>I'd say "Carpe diem" is a good candidate--especially since the movie _Dead
>Poets Society_ taught the saying to a wider public.
>
>(Then we have that bothersome and ill-defined category "catch phrase"!)
>
>--Charlie
>___ ~~~~~~~~
There's  "Nil nisi bonum"
 and (this one oughta be stamped out, but....)  "Dulce et decorum est pro
patria mori"
AM

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org