List of Latin phrases: B
Encyclopedia
B
| Latin | Translation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| barba tenus sapientes | wise as far as the beard | Or wise only in appearance. From Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus , known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and a theologian.... 's collection of Adages Adagia Adagia is an annotated collection of Greek and Latin proverbs, compiled during the Renaissance by Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. Erasmus' collection of proverbs is "one of the most monumental ... ever assembled" Adagia (adagium is the singular form and adagia is the plural) is an... . |
| Beata Virgo Maria (BVM) | Blessed Virgin Mary | A common name in the Roman Catholic Church Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity... for Mary, the mother of Jesus. The genitive Genitive case In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun... , Beatae Mariae Virginis (BMV), occurs often as well, appearing with such words as horae "hours", litaniae "litanies Litany A litany, in Christian worship and some forms of Jewish worship, is a form of prayer used in services and processions, and consisting of a number of petitions... " and officium Officium Officium is a Latin word with various meanings in Ancient Rome, including "service", " duty", "courtesy", "ceremony" and the like... "office". |
| beatae memoriae | of blessed memory | See in memoriam. |
| beati pauperes spiritu | Blessed in spirit [are] the poor. | A Beatitude Beatitudes In Christianity, the Beatitudes are a set of teachings by Jesus that appear in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The term Beatitude comes from the Latin adjective beatus which means happy, fortunate, or blissful.... from in the Vulgate Vulgate The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations... : beati pauperes spiritu, quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum "Blessed in spirit [are] the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens". |
| beati possidentes | blessed [are] those who possess | Translated from Euripides Euripides Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most... . |
| beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam | blessed is the man who finds wisdom | from Proverbs 3:13; set to music in a 1577 motet Motet In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian... of the same name by Orlando di Lasso. |
| bella gerant alii Protesilaus amet! |
let others wage war Protesilaus should love! |
Originally from Ovid Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria... , Heroides 13.84, where Laodamia Laodamia In Greek mythology, the name Laodamia referred to:* Laodamia or Deidamia, daughter of Bellerophon and Philonoe, sister of Hippolochus and Isander and the mother of Sarpedon by Zeus. She was shot by Artemis one day when she was weaving... is writing to her husband Protesilaus Protesilaus In Greek mythology, Protesilaus , was a hero in the Iliad who was venerated at cult sites in Thessaly and Thrace. Protesilaus was the son of Iphicles, a "lord of many sheep"; as grandson of the eponymous Phylacos, he was the leader of the Phylaceans... who is at the Trojan War Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad... . She begs him to stay out of danger, but he was in fact the first Greek to die at Troy Troy Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida... . Also used of the Habsburg marriages of 1477 and 1496, written as bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube (let others wage war; you, fortunate Austria, marry). Said by King Matthias Matthias Corvinus of Hungary Matthias Corvinus , also called the Just in folk tales, was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1458, at the age of 14 until his death... . |
| bellum omnium contra omnes Bellum omnium contra omnes Bellum omnium contra omnes, a Latin phrase meaning "the war of all against all," is the description that Thomas Hobbes gives to human existence in the state of nature thought experiment that he conducts in De Cive and Leviathan .... |
war of all against all | A phrase used by Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy... to describe the state of nature State of nature State of nature is a term in political philosophy used in social contract theories to describe the hypothetical condition that preceded governments... . |
| bellum se ipsum alet | war feeds itself | |
| bibo ergo sum | I drink, therefore I am | A play on "cogito ergo sum Cogito ergo sum is a philosophical Latin statement proposed by . The simple meaning of the phrase is that someone wondering whether or not they exist is, in and of itself, proof that something, an "I", exists to do the thinking — However this "I" is not the more or less permanent person we call "I"... ", "I think therefore I am". |
| bis dat qui cito dat | he gives twice, who gives promptly | A gift given without hesitation is as good as two gifts. |
| bis in die (bid) | twice in a day | Medical shorthand for "twice a day". |
| bona fide | in good faith Good faith In philosophy, the concept of Good faith—Latin bona fides “good faith”, bona fide “in good faith”—denotes sincere, honest intention or belief, regardless of the outcome of an action; the opposed concepts are bad faith, mala fides and perfidy... |
In other words, "well-intentioned", "fairly". In modern contexts, often has connotations of "genuinely" or "sincerely". Bona fides is not the plural (which would be bonis fidebus), but the nominative Nominative case The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments... , and means simply "good faith". Opposite of mala fide. |
| bona notabilia | note-worthy goods | In law, if a person dying has goods, or good debts, in another diocese or jurisdiction within that province, besides his goods in the diocese where he dies, amounting to a certain minimum value, he is said to have bona notabilia; in which case, the probat of his will belongs to the archbishop of that province. |
| bona officia | good services | A nation's offer to mediate in disputes between two other nations. |
| bona patria | goods of a country | A jury or assize of countrymen, or good neighbors. |
| bona vacantia | vacant goods | United Kingdom legal term for ownerless property that passes to The Crown The Crown The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial... . |
| boni pastoris est tondere pecus non deglubere | it is a good shepherd's [job] to shear his flock, not to flay them | Tiberius Tiberius Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian... reportedly said this to his regional commanders, as a warning against taxing the populace excessively. |
| bono malum superate | Overcome evil with good | Motto of Westonbirt School. |
| bonum commune communitatis | common good of the community | Or "general welfare". Refers to what benefits a society, as opposed to bonum commune hominis, which refers to what is good for an individual. |
| bonum commune hominis | common good of a man | Refers to an individual's happiness, which is not "common" in that it serves everyone, but in that individuals tend to be able to find happiness in similar things. |
| busillis | — | Pseudo-Latin Dog Latin Dog Latin, Cod Latin, macaronic Latin, or mock Latin refers to the creation of a phrase or jargon in imitation of Latin, often by directly translating English words into Latin without conjugation or declension... meaning "baffling puzzle" or "difficult point". John of Cornwall (ca. 1170) was once asked by a scribe what the word meant. It turns out that the original text said in diebus illis magnis plenae (in those days there were plenty of great things), which the scribe misread as indie busillis magnis plenae (in India there were plenty of large busillis). |