The Ailing Planet: the Green Movement's Role
Latin phrases and figurative words
Use Latin phrases and figurative expressions correctly.
English uses many Latin phrases:
- inter alia: among other things;
- prima facie: at first sight;
- ad hoc: for one particular purpose only;
- in camera: in private, with the public kept out;
- ad infinitum: endlessly, without limit;
- mutatis mutandis: with the necessary changes made;
- caveat: a warning;
- tabula rasa: a clean slate (a mind with nothing written on it yet).
Many ordinary words have a literal meaning and a figurative one:
- You grip a railing (literal), but fear grips a town (figurative).
- The day dawns (literal), but an idea dawns on you (figurative: you suddenly understand).
- An usher shows you to your seat (literal), but an event can usher in a new age (figurative: begin it).
- A coin is a piece of money (literal), but to coin a word is to invent it (figurative).
- A passport lets you travel abroad (literal); figuratively, it is anything that opens the way to something, as when the article calls caring for the environment our passport to the future.
Old Latin and familiar words, used in new ways.
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