Should you use Latin?
Latin was once the universal language—the lingua franca—among academics, and many writers would use Latin phrases and abbreviations—such as using sine qua non to describe something or someone essential, or saying Sic transit gloria mundi when someone fell from public favor—to show their erudition. (Nowadays, most people who want to show off their erudition use $25 words like erudition instead of two-bit words like book learnin’.)
Few of the phrases and abbreviations that once were common in writing appear anymore; for example, one only encounters viz. (an abbreviation for videlicet*, meaning namely or that is) when you read older books and articles.
Some Latin words still hang around—such as etc., e.g., and i.e.—so the question remains: Should one use them in writing?
There isn’t a rule for this. Some words, like etc., are so commonly used that almost everyone knows what they mean. Some—like versus—have become assimilated into the English lexicon, and there’s really no better “English” word.
Others, although people use them frequently, are troublemakers. For example, people do like to use e.g. (an abbreviation for exempli gratia, which means for example) and i.e. (id est, or that is), but they frequently mix them up, using e.g. when they should have used i.e., and vice versa**.
If you want a rule for these things, then I suppose this is it: Use Latin words, phrases, and abbreviations only if you’re positive that your audience already knows what they mean, or if you’re prepared to explain them. If you’re writing a political screed and want to toss in the phrase Carthago delenda est, then be prepared to explain that it means “Carthage must be destroyed.”
Question them all. Most of all, question the abbreviations. The point of abbreviations is to shorten things up and save the reader time, not you. It may take less time for you to write e.g. instead of for example, but if it causes your reader to pause for a moment and puzzle out whether you mean for example or that is, then you should do the extra (little bit of) work and write it out in ordinary English.
*Don’t ask me to explain how the z got in the abbreviated form when it isn’t in the unabbreviated form. It’s not a pretty story.
**Here’s another example of a completely assimilated Latin phrase. English is rather like the Borg in some respects. (I forget the exact quote, or who said it, but someone once said something like “English does not borrow from other languages. It beats them up in dark alleyways and rifles through their pockets for spare words.”)
Roy Jacobsen
in Word Choice, Plain Language
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