Quote:
Originally Posted by mtravellerh
Isn't quondam, a bit like quidam, used in legalese? In German you quite often find those two in law-speak but then again german and french lawyers might just be bragging about their latin knowledge.
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i didn't know quidam was used in english (at least in legalese english...). it's used in french slang to mean "some guy". not so much now but it was still quite common in the 50s and probably later. Raymond Queneau (among others) uses it all the time in his books. i think of it as a common (if slightly outdated) term of french argot. now i wonder if other people know the word too...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7705922.stm
"Several councils have banned the use of Latin terminology
A number of local councils in Britain have banned their staff from using Latin words, because they say they might confuse people.
... the move has been welcomed by the Plain English Campaign which says some officials only use Latin to make themselves feel important.
A Campaign spokesman said the ban might stop people confusing the Latin abbreviation e.g. with the word "egg". "
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i find that rather tragic, actually. it's a voluntary impoverishing of the language, which certainly needs no help in that direction (on the contrary).