Litwit Lounge discussion

Surprising how often we use foreign phrases, I come across these many times simply reading fiction. Please share foreign phrases as you come across them (with context and origin), or just your favorites as you think of them.

She remembered the Latin teacher at school translating "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" - it is a sweet and decorous thing to die for one's country.

~The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith

This time, the passage itself has given the origin and meaning.

Although I can't remember the exact books and context, I know I've seen these at one time or another because they've stayed in my head. Probably most commonly, "C'est la vie"! and:
"Vouloir, c'est pouvoir." (Where there's a will there's a way)
"Con dinero baila el perro" (With money the dog dances)
and my favorite:
"No hay que ahorgarse en un vaso de agua" -- don't drown in a glass of water! :)

Reggia wrote: "Surprising how often we use foreign phrases, I come across these many times simply reading fiction. Please share foreign phrases as you come across them (with context and origin), or just your fav..."
When I was teaching university and we had something like Ethics to teach to Business Studies students , we used to get a grim laugh amongst ourselves from " Oderint, dum metuant" which I think is supposed to be one of Caligula's favourites.
( let them hate so long as they fear)

I like "Quelle dommage" ('Too bad' in French) and "Quelle surprise" ('What a surprise' in French).

'Tant Pis' , French for approx 'well so much the worse' is good too

Sometimes, indeed, I felt a wish for happiness; and thought, with melancholy delight, of my beloved cousin; or longed, with a devouring, maladie du pays, to see once more the blue lake and rapid Rhone that had been so dear to me in early childhood: but my general state of feeling was a torpor in which a prison was as welcome a residence as the divinest scene in nature; and these fits were seldom interrupted but by paroxysms of anguish and despair. ~from Frankenstein

maladie du pays - homesickness

my fave at work is the same the my mother said when we were in real deep crap with her. Please bear with about the spelling.

Vien ici... ... (over the top of the glasses scowl) VITment!!

Ignis aurum probat: (Defined within the quote.)

"My password? Of course. Three words, Ignis aurum probat. “Fire tests gold.” ‘The rest of the phrase: “…and adversity tests the brave.” How true. A strong password, strong indeed, exactly as required by the computer system." ~from Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Donnez-moi de l'oxygene.
= Give me some oxygen!

By Diane Dufresne from the song Oxygene

Is anyone in this group conversant enough with french to translate the term chapeau-bras for me? I've encountered it a couple of times (so far) in The Scarlet Pimpernel.

It's a three cornered hat, Werner. Literally, an "arms hat"!

Further investigations reveals that it's a flat hat made of silk, and usually carried under the arms ("bras").

Thanks, Jean! (I suspected it was some kind of hat. :-) )

I like hats :) I wish they'd come back into fashion (but I wear them anyway!)

Bionic Jean wrote: "I like hats :) I wish they'd come back into fashion (but I wear them anyway!)"

I usually wear a good warm one when I have to be outdoors in the winter. I'd rather be comfortable than fashionable. :-)

Me too :)

Toujours de l'audace. Always courageous? Always audacious?

"...Churchill clung to the theory that had brought him over the wall, out of the garden and through Pretoria. Toujours de l'audace. 'When hope had departed," he wrote, 'fear had gone as well.'"

Also, pour prendre congé meaning "to take my leave" which he wrote on the outside of an envelope to the government from whom he had just escaped imprisonment.

~from Hero of the Empire

Nihil humanum mihi alienum est. (defined within the quote)

"I feel a certain embarrassment in mentioning it to you."

The psychotherapist made a diffident gesture. "Please don't be concerned about that," he said. "Nihil humanum mihi alienum est, Mr Varg. Nothing human is foreign to me. In other words, I suppose, I've seen it all.

~from The Department of Sensitive Crimes

Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit. (Man proposes, God disposes.)

Rune parries with his own questions. "Why did it take us in the West centuries to learn a technique that was right under our nose? What else don't we know, eh, Digby? What else?"

Dr Orqvist. Please. What do you propose?"

"Call me Rune, please. Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit," Rune says, pointing heavenward. "I propose that you come to Saint Bridget's. We'll leave in the morning. But it's contingent on one thing."

Digby looks anxious. "What?"

"Tell me you like our plum wine."