Essentially the most badass Latin phrases

Wish to impress your mates along with your erudite methods? Desirous to utter fully vicious phrases that individuals should lookup later? Searching for a extra educated strategy to speak trash on-line? Then you definitely, my pal, have to brush up in your Latin. The phrases under are all value committing to reminiscence if for no different purpose than that quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

Vincit qui se vincit.

He conquers who conquers himself.

Used as a motto by many faculties, this phrase speaks to the significance of first getting your self beneath management, mastering your urges and temptations, earlier than attempting to manage the surface world. Additionally, enjoyable reality, it might be seen on a stained glass window originally of Disney’s Magnificence and the Beast.

Carthago delenda est.

Carthage should be destroyed.

The Second Punic Struggle, fought between 218 and 201 BC, was a tough one for Rome, as they initiated it solely to get spanked in a really possible way by Hannibal and his elephants. Following the battle, famous hardass Cato the Elder would finish his speeches with this phrase, which lately can be utilized so as to add emphasis and vehemence to an argument.

Non ducor, duco.

I’m not led, I lead.

The motto of São Paulo, Brazil, this phrase is a superb, albeit considerably aggressive strategy to assert your dominance whereas additionally letting people know that you simply’ve learn a couple of books. It corrects anybody beneath the mistaken assumption that you simply aren’t absolutely the boss and/or innovator of any given state of affairs.

Gladiator in enviornment consilium capit.

The gladiator is formulating his plan within the enviornment.

This one involves us from the thinker, statesman and dramatist Seneca the Youthful. It refers back to the time simply previous to a gladiator’s battle, when the warrior is already within the enviornment making ready to battle. Mainly, it’s a extra badass strategy to say “We’re already pregnant,” or, in different phrases: You’re too rattling late.

Aqua vitae.

Water of life.

A lot of the phrases listed right here have at the least some sort of connection to battle, fight, and wrestle, however this one is a bit completely different. Aqua vitae can be utilized to seek advice from any sort of liquor, whether or not it’s accomplished sincerely whereas speaking about that single barrel scotch you’ve been saving, or extra paradoxically for a case of PBR.

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Sic semper tyrannis.

Thus all the time to tyrants.

Today, this phrase is usually often called what John Wilkes Sales space might or might not have shouted out whereas assassinating President Abraham Lincoln. That affiliation is a disgrace, nonetheless, because it’s a a lot older phrase, with a far much less problematic, however equally murderous historical past.

Previous to its debated use by Sales space, the phrase was positioned on the official seal of the commonwealth of Virginia, which additionally featured a feminine warrior, representing advantage, standing upon a defeated king, representing tyranny. The phrase is all about how tyrants have a tendency to satisfy brutal ends, which explains why the phrase is so intently related with a a lot earlier assassination: That of Julius Caesar.

Astra inclinant, sed non obligant.

The celebrities incline us, they don’t bind us.

I like this one as a result of it’s about as daring a one-line refutation of fatalism as you’ll be able to think about. The phrase signifies that whereas destiny — whether or not decided by the celebrities, the gods or one thing else completely — would possibly nudge us in a sure path, we’re by no means pressured in it. Free will exists, and the choice of what to do in any circumstance is in the end our personal.

Aut cum scuto aut in scuto.

Both with protect or on protect.

That is truly a Latin model of an earlier Greek phrase. In Sparta, moms had been stated to inform their war-bred kids to both come again carrying their protect or on it. At first, that may not make numerous sense, however once you acknowledge the scale and weight of a Spartan protect, the tendency of deserters to go away it behind and the custom of carrying useless troopers again dwelling upon their protect, the which means turns into clear: Don’t give up, by no means surrender.

Igne natura renovatur integra.

By way of hearth, nature is reborn complete.

So this one’s a bit complicated. First up, it’s essential to learn about INRI, an acronym for Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum, which suggests “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews,” a phrase that was stated to have been inscribed on the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. Later, as a part of alchemical and occult research, this Latin backronym(opens in a brand new tab) was created, which refers back to the cleaning energy of fireside and the ever-repeating cycle of loss of life and life.

Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

If I cannot bend the need of Heaven, I shall transfer Hell.

Initially spoken by Juno in Virgil’s Aeneid, this phrase is probably best-known in the present day for showing as a dedication in Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Goals. However as for how you can use it, it sort of works as a chunk of all-purpose badassery, one thing to utter or growl once you’ve been stymied or prevented from reaching your purpose. Give it further punch by taking some liberties with the interpretation, telling individuals who ask that it means “If I can’t transfer heaven, I shall elevate hell.”

Oderint dum metuant.

Allow them to hate as long as they concern.

I used to be first uncovered to this phrase from its use on a t-shirt for skilled wrestler Triple H, who has a protracted historical past of utilizing completely different Latin phrases on his merchandise and entrance movies. This one suits Triple H completely, as he has a status for being a brutal, considerably mercenary expertise inside WWE, so it’s applicable that he would borrow a line from considered one of Rome’s most brutal dictators: Caligula.

UPDATE: Could. 29, 2023, 11:42 a.m. AEST This put up initially appeared on Geek. It was printed on Mashable in Apr. 2020, and has been up to date in Could 2023.