| Latin | 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. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Of, pertaining to, or composed in, the language used by the Romans or Latins; as, a Latin grammar; a Latin composition or idiom. [ 1913 Webster ]
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. [ 1913 Webster ]
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| Latin | n. 1. A native or inhabitant of Latium; a Roman. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. The language of the ancient Romans. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. An exercise in schools, consisting in turning English into Latin. [ Obs. ] Ascham. [ 1913 Webster ] 4. (Eccl.) A member of the Roman Catholic Church. [ 1913 Webster ]
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. [ 1913 Webster ]
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| Latinism | n. [ Cf. F. latinisme. ] A Latin idiom; a mode of speech peculiar to Latin; also, a mode of speech in another language, as English, formed on a Latin model. [ 1913 Webster ] ☞ The term is also sometimes used by Biblical scholars to designate a Latin word in Greek letters, or the Latin sense of a Greek word in the Greek Testament. [ 1913 Webster ] |
