Carpe diem is often translated “seize the day,” but the carpe in that Latin saying can also mean “pluck” or “harvest.” The saying comes from a brief poem by the ancient Roman writer Horace. Addressing a woman desperate to know her fate, Horace uses...
Quiz Guy John Chaneski calls this week’s puzzle “Three of a Kind, Four of a Kind,” but it has nothing to do with cards. The challenge is to find words that have either three occurrences of a letter or four. For example, if the letter in question is...
Robert in Tucson, Arizona, asks how reptile enthusiasts should pronounce in situ, the Latin phrase meaning “in place,” used for finding a snake, lizard, or turtle exactly where it was, not posed for the camera. Because in situ still feels partly...
Barbara in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California, wonders whether her mother’s favorite warning that a crowded place would be “a mob scene” was a family invention. The expression has been around since at least the late 1800s and comes from theater, where...
What other names could a team use if they realize it’s time to give up calling themselves the “Redskins”? Also, what should we call those people who don’t turn left as as soon as the traffic light goes green? Plus, the...
The athletic-shoe brand ASICS takes its name from the initials of the Latin motto anima sana in corpore sano, usually rendered “a sound mind in a sound body.” That wording echoes the older phrase mens sana in corpore sano, from a satire by the Roman...
