Philippic

Philippic means a verbal denunciation or condemnation, often in a speech, characterised by harsh, insulting language.  What I like most is how positive it sounds.  To me its sound invokes feelings of the word terrific.
 

 

The word also refers to any of Demosthenes's speeches urging Athenians to rise up against Philip II of Macedon in the fourth century BC. which is the origin of the word.  Ironically though, these speeches failed to effectively warn the Greeks of the danger of Philip of Macedon, who turned out be Alexander the Greats Dad.  Later in 44BC Marcus Tullius Cicero of Rome consciously modelled his own series of verbal attacks against Mark Antony on Demosthenes's and several of these speeches were referred to as The Philippics during the time.
 

 

But, for a modern Philippic orator you can't go past Bob Dylan.  A fact which his contemporaries Simon & Garfunkel acknowledged in their 1966 recording of the song A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission) for the duo's album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.  In the song Simon complains about a man who is, "...so unhip, when you say Dylan he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas," the next line in the songs says, "It's all right Ma. Everybody must get stoned." which is a reference to the Bob Dylan song Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35.  At the end of the song Simon says, "Folk rock," and, after an audible noise, "I've lost my harmonica, Albert." This again refers to Dylan, his music, his harmonica and his manager Albert Grossman.

 

Have a listen.

 

 

Oh Four Tuna

O Fortuna is actually a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the 13th century.  Some time around 1935-36, O Fortuna was set to music by the German composer Carl Orff as a part of movement Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi of his cantata Carmina Burana.  Orff's musical setting of the poem has become immensely popular and has been performed by countless classical and popular music artists. It features in numerous movies and television commercials and has become one of the most played classical music pieces in the past 75 years.

If you listen closely you're realise it's a song all about food.

 

The original medieval poem is a complaint about fate and the Roman giddess Fortuna, the personification of luck.  Here's the original  Latin Goliardic version with translation:

 

O Fortuna velut luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite!

O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts them like ice. Fate – monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent, well-being is vain and always fades to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game I bring my bare back to your villainy. Fate is against me in health and virtue, driven on and weighted down, always enslaved. So at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating strings; since Fate strikes down the strong man, everyone weep with me!

 

It's Trivialis

Floccinaucinihilipilification. No I didn't just slam my forehead on the keyboard, it's a real word. It's the categorising of something that is useless or trivial. I think I do that a bit. I'll have to make a note of being a floccinaucinihilipilificationist. Despite it's meaning, the pronunciation of floccinaucinihilipilification is no trivial task.

As far as I'm concerned, trivialis is the original, more correct descriptive term, not the term trivial. Like most words, trivia originally derived from the Latin, tri meaning triple and via meaning way, "a place where three ways meet".

The word trivia was used to describe a place where three roads met in Ancient Rome. All of which roads were said to lead to Rome, but that probably had something to do with them being built by Romans, and Rome is where the Romans wanted to go when they finished roaming around.  Later the term trivialis became a derogatory term meaning "appropriate to the street corner".

Eventually trivia began referring to the lower division of the Artes Liberales (liberal arts), basic education, being: grammar, rhetoric, and logic. The higher division of the Liberal Arts was the quadrivia, higher education. The quadrivia (four ways) being: arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. So things not of the higher education (the quadvia) became referred to as trivial.

Latin

Most people are familiar with some of the more famous Latin phrases such as Carpe diem (Seize the day), Veni vidi vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). Here's a handful of more useful phrases you can throw into your day to day conversations.

Carpe canis!

Sieze the dog!

Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.

Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.

Apudne te vel me?

Your place or mine?

Age. Fac ut gaudeam!

Go ahead. Make my day!

What's up, Doc?

Quid agis, Medice?

Fac ut vivas.

Get a life.

Sit vis nobiscum.
May the force be with you.

Caterva carissima mea est Cimictus.

My favourite group is the Beatles.

Veni, veni, veni Locamowae cum me.
Come on, come on, do the Locomotion with me.

Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit.
To boldly go where no man has gone before.

Isso fede.
This stinks.

Illius me paenitet, dux.
Sorry about that, chief.

Machina improba! Vel mihi ede potum vel mihi redde nummos meos!
You infernal machine! Give me a beverage or give me my money back!

Obesa cantavit.
The fat lady has sung.