Latin: Back From The Dead
January Latin Challenge: Day 1 of 31
For our first day of January, we are delving into how Latin is used in the modern world, including how it influenced one of the top popular culture phenomena ever - the Harry Potter series.
This post is a brief introduction to Latin and how it is used in a modern context, so let’s dive right in.
Why bother learning Latin? It’s a dead language right?
No!
Latin is the basis of lots of languages and you will already know lots of words from their use in English or other Romance languages, like Spanish, French and Portuguese! There are actually over 40 Romance languages, all with roots in Latin.
Lets look at some words lots of people will know:
The Latin word for “love” is amo, anyone who learned Latin at school can tell you that.
In French, it’s aime, Spanish te amo, Portuguese te amo, and ti amo in Italian. And even in English, we have the word amorous which links!
In French, there is the word empereur, Spanish has emperador, in Portuguese there’s imperador, and in Italian imperatore. These all derive from the Latin word imperator, which means general or leader, and later the English word Emperor.
There are lots of common links within these Languages, but let’s take a closer look at English too.
As well as being the root for more than half of English words, like mors meaning death and pater meaning father, Latin and Classical themes are present in all sorts of Literature, Science, Law, Medicine and many other aspects of society! I could write about Latin links to modern day life for days, but I am fairly certain no one would read it all. So, for today, I am going to focus on Latin’s prevalence in one of the most influential series of the modern day.
How Latin inspired a pop-culture phenomenon
JK Rowling used her knowledge of Latin and Classical stories to write lots of the Harry Potter series! Lets see how she came up with some of the spells from the wizarding world.
Disclaimer: You never have to have read or seen Harry Potter for this, don’t worry, its just an example to show how Latin can be used in everyday life and popular culture.
Here are a few of the spells, and a list of some Latin words with their literal meaning. Can you use them to figure out what each spell does?
lumos
imperio
geminio
expecto patronum
Useful Latin Vocabulary
lux, lumen - lantern, light
impero - I command, I order
geminus, gemini - twin, twins
patronus - patron, guardian
expecto - I wait for, I expect
Explanations below, so don’t move on until you want to find out!
I’ll go through each spell now, explaining their Latin links.
lumos comes from the Latin lux, which can also be lumen in some situations. This means light or lantern. This one is used to make your wand a torch to help light the way.
imperio is a bad spell in the Harry Potter universe. The word comes from impero, which is a verb meaning to order or to command. This spell makes someone do whatever you tell them, and is often used for nefarious purposes
Side note: nefarious is a word that comes from Latin too!
geminio comes from the word gemini, meaning twins. This is also one of the Zodiac signs, named after Castor and Pollux (who are, you guessed it, twin brothers). This spell allows the caster to make many copies of an object.
My favourite spell is expecto patronum. This one is very clearly from Latin. a patronus in Latin is someone who watches over you, a guardian or protector. Usually this would be for artists, musicians or poets, and their patron would be a wealthy citizen who funded their lifestyle so they could keep creating. expecto is a Latin verb meaning “I wait for” or “I expect”, a clear link to the English we use today. So the spell literally means “I await a guardian”. This spell conjures a defensive spirit that protects you from horrible creatures called dementors, so it is a perfect fit for its use.
What’s your favourite Harry Potter spell? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll show you the Latin link if there is one!
I want to give you my free guide as we start this January Challenge: 3 Simple Steps To Instantly Improve Your Latin Translations - its got some great tips for improving, and will really help you to become more accurate and fluent.
I hope you have enjoyed this very brief introduction to Latin for day one of the January Latin Challenge. Next time I will be focussing more on the actual grammar and explaining how Latin works as a language. Don’t forget to subscribe if you want to learn Latin! Thanks for reading!