10 Welsh Words Rooted in Latin

1. Aur, gold (aurum)
2. Braich, arm (brachium)
3. Bresych, cabbage, (brassica)
4. Ffenestr, window (fenestra)
5. Ffos, ditch (fossa)
6. Llew, lion (leo)
7. Llyfr, book (liber)
8. Plwm, lead (plumbum)
9. Pobl, people (populus)
10. Pont, bridge (pons)

(There are hundreds of these)

10 Songs with Latin lyrics

These pop songs all have Latin words

1. Gaudete (Steeleye Span)
2. Gloria (U2)
3. Benedictus (Simon & Garfunkel)
4. O Caritas (Cat Stevens)
5. Pie Jesu (Sarah Brightman)
6. Ave Maria (Leslie Garret, Amanda Thomson)
7. Round goes the gossip (Focus)
8. Pax Deorum and Tempus Vernum (Enya)
9. Afer Ventus and Cursum perficio (Enya)
10. Regina caeli, O filii et filiae (Sinéad O'Connor)

10 Bands with Latin names

1. Status Quo (The existing state of affairs, Rock band)
2. Desideratum (What is needed or wanted, Brazilian metal band)
3. Oasis (Fertile spot in a desert, Rock band)
4. Carpe Diem (Seize the day, French Progrock band)
5. Ipso Facto (By that very fact or act, Goth influenced psychedelic band)
6. Mea Culpa (My fault, US Punk band)
7. Rigor Mortis (Stiffening of the joints of a body after death, US Thrash metal band)
8. Vice versa (In reverse order, Electronic rock band)
9. The Cortinas (Curtained, used for such a phenomenon on some mushrooms, Punk band)
10. Procol Harum (Misspelt, Far from these things, Latin name for Blue Burmese cat, Rock band)

(Based on a Craig Brown idea. Perhaps Madonna and Muse fit)

Summer Reading 1 A Classical Primer

I was in The Works and I saw this little hardback covering Greek and Latin language, history, literature, philosophy. architecture and science and technology and fancied it for myself and hopefully for one of my sons who likes this sort of thing. I did a course on most of it in my first year in Uni and even toyed with the idea of learning Latin from scratch for half my degree. I suppose the Lack of Latin and the poor Greek is a bit of a regret but books like this do make so much accessible even for ignoramuses* like me. (* that is correct, I checked years ago).

Poor man's Bible £16K

My good friends at Abebbooks tell me that they sold a Latin Bible from 1491 last month and it was their most expensive sale. Ironically, it's nicknamed the Poor Man's Bible but sold for £16,132! Their top 10 list also includes a first edition of Little Women and beautiful rare books about Egyptian archaeology, orchids and ornithology.

Ancient riot

Churches are notorious for harbouring people who don’t like the way things are going and who want to voice their opinion about it. They don’t like the music or the carpet or how the money is spent or they think communion should be more often, or whatever. In F F Bruce's 1998 book The canon of Scripture he describes how Augustine of Hippo (354-430) wrote to Jerome (346-420) in 403 and encouraged him to learn Hebrew and to make a new translation of the Bible into Latin. There was a general concern among the bishops of the time at the multiplicity of other versions circulating. Jerome's translation, of course, became known as the Vulgate. Bruce tells how "a riot broke out in one North-African church when the bishop, reading Jonah 4:6, called the plant which shaded Jonah from the sun an "ivy" (Latin: hedera), in accordance with Jerome's new translation, and not a "gourd" (cucurbita), the term to which they were accustomed. The bishop was forced to change the rendering so as not to lose his congregation."

(Source: F.F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Grand Rapids: IVP Academic, 1998), 94)