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Latin Much of English is made up of words from other languages, and a large proportion come from Latin, the extinct language of ancient Rome and its empire, inherited either directly, or indirectly through French (a Romance language developed from Latin). After it ceased to be a living first language, Latin nevertheless survived as the language of the Christian church and of scholarship, including science, where modern Latin still provides the taxonomic names for plants and animals. Latin has therefore been available as a source of new words for English throughout the history of the language.
Migrants direct from Latin tend to be more formal and technical than those that made their way into English through French, though many everyday words are still of immediate Latin origin (for example curve, except, motor, persuade, produce, and silent). Words that came into English from Latin via French include absent, benign, card, human, legal, and patient. The picture is further complicated by the similarity of related French and Latin forms, making either language the possible source of words such as addition, canine, normal, succeed, and valid; moreover English words from French were often Latinized after their adoption, for example ocular (directly from French oculaire but now reformed as if from its source late Latin ocularis), and serious (directly from French sérieux but now as if from late Latin seriosus, from Latin serius). ('Latin' alone usually refers to classical Latin, used between the end of the first century bc and the third century ad: later periods are specified as 'late Latin', 'modern Latin', etc. as appropriate.)
One large class of words clearly identifiable as being of Latin origin is that of verbs ending in -ate (deviate, generate, liberate, vibrate, etc.). Latin is a highly inflected language, with numerous different forms for the same word, and English tends to borrow such verbs from their past participles, whereas in French they have usually developed from the infinitive; for example elevate comes from elevat-, the past participle form of the Latin infinitive elevare, from which the equivalent French verb élever derives. Adjectives in -ose are also usually from Latin, and mostly late arrivals (early Latin words in -osus are usually anglicized as -ous), for example bellicose (15th century) and religiose (mid-19th). Certain types of irregular plural are also telltale signs of Latin migrant nouns: -ae for nouns in -a (formula, plural formulae alongside formulas), -i for nouns in -us (stimulus, plural stimuli), -a for nouns in -um (ovum, plural ova), a change of -sis to -ses (emphasis, plural emphases - though some words of this form may be directly from Greek), and in some technical words changes of -x to -c- or -g- (calyx, plural calyces alongside calyxes, larynx, plural larynges alongside larynxes). These irregular plurals have often caused difficulty and change in English: see, for example, agenda, data, and media; others have maintained their plural status, for example impedimenta, memorabilia, and viscera.
Some Latin words have changed grammatical status in the voyage into English: alibi, for example, was an adverb meaning 'elsewhere' in Latin and for the first century of its use in English, but during the late 18th century the adverbial use became obsolete and the current noun use took over; tandem was also an adverb, meaning 'at length', but was humorously applied to a vehicle; veto meant 'I forbid' in Latin, but in English became a noun and a fully inflected verb.
Up to the time of the Reformation, in the early 16th century, the main category of Latin words entering English belonged to the Christian church; from the late 16th century emphasis changed to scholarly and legal terms, and there was a conscious attempt to elevate and improve the English language and create a Latinate formal and literary stratum. Latin phrases and tags were introduced (including a fortiori, caveat emptor, cui bono, and ne plus ultra). Exempli gratia arrived in the mid-17th century, was abbreviated to e.g. before the century was out, and its Latin origin receded into the background. Latin alternatives to older English words were advocated, for example terminate (late 16th century) instead of 'end' or 'finish'; some found a regular useful place in the language, but others, for example sequacious, were always formal and are now often archaic. The vocabulary of science remains, however, resolutely Latinate, though English is now the usual vehicle of scientific publication. Chemical elements are given Latin forms, for example aluminium (early 19th century) and lutetium (early 20th); anatomical terms often derive from Latin, as in the hippocampus, medulla oblongata, and pia mater of the brain. Although the main waves of migration were over, the 20th century continued to receive Latin words in technical areas: in psychoanalysis, for example, ego and id, and in the same field of human observation gravitas, libido, and persona; in phonetics fortis and lenis consonants; in biology mutant and predator; and in academia (mid-20th century) curriculum vitae. In addition Latin elements have continued to be combined with others to create new terms, for example in the late 20th century in lentivirus (from lentus 'slow') and nutraceutical (another word for 'functional food', from nutrire 'nourish').
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