Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said: “Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.”

This is especially true of Latin for those of us in what is called “the West,” precisely because of how it has influenced our own language, and thus our culture.  In fact, the very term “Western Civilization,” of which America is a modern part, has its roots in the division of the Roman Empire into an East and West—with the West largely associated with Latin Christendom.

What does this matter?  Well, Latin is language of our civilizational roots.  And understanding it is essential to understanding our own language—not just to know the basic linguistic sources of our words, but to comprehend the ideas that lie behind them.

Think of the word “republic,” which is the American form of government—it comes from the Latin res publica meaning “public thing” or “public affair,” that is, an affair of the people.  We call ourselves a republic, because our government is not an affair of a king or a ruling class, but one, as Abraham Lincoln once said, “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Or think of the word “secular.”  We often regard it as meaning “not religious.”  But the word actually comes from the Latin saeculum, which originally meant a length of time—usually either the lifetime of a human being or the time it took for the renewal of a population, like a generation.  A person with a secular perspective is really one who looks at things from the perspective of earthly time—that is, not with an eye toward eternity.

These are just two examples—there are thousands more.  But here’s the rub.  Language is not just a means of communicating—it is a mode of civilizational transmission.  Knowing Latin is a way of understanding—not just our own language, but understanding ourselves and the culture we have inherited. 

Have a wonderful day.