[lat-n] 
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Lat·in (lāt'n) n.
[Middle English, from Old French and from Old English lǣden, both from Latin Latīnus, from Latium, an ancient country of west-central Italy.] |
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.
Centurion: What's this, then? ‘People called Romanes they go the house?’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."
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"]
Latin
the vernacular language of the ancient Romans (John 19:20).
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