Monday, August 31, 2009

Words for All Seasons No. 4

Latin, v.:
To interlard with Latin.

"The unlearned or foolish fantastical, that smells but of learning (such fellows as have been learned in their days), will so Latin their tongues, that the simple cannot but wonder at their talk, and think surely they speak by some revelation."
From footnote 16 of Frederic Wheelock, Latin (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963) p. xxii.

The OED definition is even better than the word itself.

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