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9 dictionary results for: Latin

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Lat·in

[lat-n] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	an Italic language spoken in ancient Rome, fixed in the 2nd or 1st century b.c., and established as the official language of the Roman Empire. Abbreviation: L

2.	one of the forms of literary Latin, as Medieval Latin, Late Latin, Biblical Latin, or Liturgical Latin, or of nonclassical Latin, as Vulgar Latin.

3.	a native or inhabitant of Latium; an ancient Roman.

4.	a member of any of the Latin peoples, or those speaking chiefly Romance languages, esp. a native of or émigré from Latin America.

5.	a member of the Latin Church; a Roman Catholic, as distinguished from a member of the Greek Church.

–adjective

6.	denoting or pertaining to those peoples, as the Italians, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc., using languages derived from Latin, esp. the peoples of Central and South America: a meeting of the Latin republics.

7.	of or pertaining to the Latin Church.

8.	of or pertaining to Latium, its inhabitants, or their language.

9.	of or pertaining to the Latin alphabet.

[Origin: bef. 950; ME, OE < L Latīnus. See Latium, -ine¹

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Lat·in (lāt'n) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. The Indo-European language of the ancient Latins and Romans and the most important cultural language of western Europe until the end of the 17th century.
2. The Latin language and literature from the end of the third century B.C. to the end of the second century A.D.
3. A member of a Latin people, especially a native or inhabitant of Latin America.
4. A Latino or Latina.
1. A member of a Latin people, especially a native or inhabitant of Latin America.
2. A Latino or Latina.
A native or resident of ancient Latium.

adj.

Of, relating to, or composed in Latin: a Latin scholar; Latin verse.
1. Of or relating to ancient Rome, its people, or its culture.
2. Of or relating to Latium, its people, or its culture.
3. Of or relating to the peoples, countries, or cultures of Latin America.
4. Of or relating to Latinos or their culture.
Of or relating to the languages that developed from Latin, such as Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, or to the peoples that speak them.
1. Of or relating to the peoples, countries, or cultures of Latin America.
2. Of or relating to Latinos or their culture.
Of or relating to the Roman Catholic Church.

[Middle English, from Old French and from Old English lǣden, both from Latin Latīnus, from Latium, an ancient country of west-central Italy.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Latin

O.E. latin, from L. Latinus "belonging to Latium," the region of Italy around Rome, possibly from PIE base *stela- "to spread, extend," with a sense of "flat country" (as opposed to the mountainous district of the Sabines), or from a prehistoric non-IE language.

Centurion: What's this, then? ‘People called Romanes they go the house?’
Brian: It ... it says, ‘Romans, go home.’
Centurion [thrashing him like a schoolboy]: No, it doesn't. ‘Go home?' This is motion towards. Isn't it, boy?
Brian: Ah ... ah, dative, sir! Ahh! No, not dative! Not the dative, sir! No! Ah! Oh, the ... accusative! Domum, sir! Ah! Oooh! Ah!
Centurion [pulling him by the ear]: Except that domum takes the ...?
Brian: The locative, sir!
[Monty Python, "Life of Brian"]

Used as a designation for "people whose languages descend from Latin" (1856), hence Latin American (1893). The Latin Quarter (Fr. Quartier latin) of Paris, on the south (left) bank of the Seine, was the site of university buildings in the Middle Ages, hence the place where Latin was spoken. The surname Latimer, Lattimore, etc. is from V.L. latimarus, from L. latinarius "interpreter," lit. "a speaker of Latin."

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

latin
adjective
1.	of or relating to the ancient Latins or the Latin language; "Latin verb conjugations"
2.	relating to people or countries speaking Romance languages; "Latin America"
3.	relating to languages derived from Latin; "Romance languages" [syn: Romance]
4.	of or relating to the ancient region of Latium; "Latin towns"
noun
1.	any dialect of the language of ancient Rome
2.	an inhabitant of ancient Latium
3.	a person who is a member of those peoples whose languages derived from Latin

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American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
Latin

The language of ancient Rome. When Rome became an empire, the language spread throughout southern and western Europe.

Note: The modern Romance languages — French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and a few others — are all derived from Latin.

Note: During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Latin was the universal language of learning. Even in modern English, many scholarly, technical, and legal terms, such as per se and habeas corpus, retain their Latin form.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Latin

Lat"in\, a. [F., fr. L. Latinus belonging to Latium, Latin, fr. Latium a country of Italy, in which Rome was situated. Cf. Ladin, Lateen sail, under Lateen.]

1. Of or pertaining to Latium, or to the Latins, a people of Latium; Roman; as, the Latin language.

2. Of, pertaining to, or composed in, the language used by the Romans or Latins; as, a Latin grammar; a Latin composition or idiom.

Latin Church (Eccl. Hist.), the Western or Roman Catholic Church, as distinct from the Greek or Eastern Church.

Latin cross. See Illust. 1 of Cross.

Latin races, a designation sometimes loosely given to certain nations, esp. the French, Spanish, and Italians, who speak languages principally derived from Latin.

Latin Union, an association of states, originally comprising France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, which, in 1865, entered into a monetary agreement, providing for an identity in the weight and fineness of the gold and silver coins of those countries, and for the amounts of each kind of coinage by each. Greece, Servia, Roumania, and Spain subsequently joined the Union.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Latin

Lat"in\, n. 1. A native or inhabitant of Latium; a Roman.

2. The language of the ancient Romans.

3. An exercise in schools, consisting in turning English into Latin. [Obs.] --Ascham.

4. (Eccl.) A member of the Roman Catholic Church.

Dog Latin, barbarous Latin; a jargon in imitation of Latin; as, the log Latin of schoolboys.

Late Latin, Low Latin, terms used indifferently to designate the latest stages of the Latin language; low Latin (and, perhaps, late Latin also), including the barbarous coinages from the French, German, and other languages into a Latin form made after the Latin had become a dead language for the people.

Law Latin, that kind of late, or low, Latin, used in statutes and legal instruments; -- often barbarous.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Latin

Lat"in\, v. t. To write or speak in Latin; to turn or render into Latin. [Obs.] --Fuller.

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Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Latin

the vernacular language of the ancient Romans (John 19:20).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

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