Now the Romans do have a word for it

By Andrew Stevenson
September 1, 2004

Not to be shackled while the world goes to hell in a handcart, the Vatican is making up new words to hold the line against sin.

As the only body in the world still using Latin, the Vatican has helpfully produced a new lexicon of modern words.

It may help resolve the problem of how to threaten damnation if you dare not speak vice's name.

Words appearing for the first time include hotpants (brevissimae bracae femineae), nightclub (taberna nocturna) and cigarette (fistula nicotiana). Like iuvenis voluptarius (the new Latin playboy), they're unlikely to feature favourably in the next papal encyclical.

Cletus Pavanetto, the president of the Latinitas Foundation, which compiled the dictionary, said: "There are lots of words that classical Latin could not possibly know the meaning of, like 'drugs' or words relating to current affairs.

"We devise new words by going back to their origins and etymology, so that people who use Latin can write about the modern world.

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"It is for theologians who wish to make their writing more relevant to modern issues, but it is also for any Latin enthusiast who wishes to make himself better understood."

A Sydney Latin scholar, Dexter Hoyos, was unimpressed with the Vatican's work.

Rather than slang, which true Latins loved, he termed its words "fairly literal explanations".

Rather than call hotpants "very short trousers", as the Vatican has done, Mr Hoyos, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, recommends combining the word for hot, calidae, with bracae, the trousers, to make calibracae.

"It's easy to pronounce and quite, if I may modestly say so, unique," he said. "I doubt a single Vatican philologist would come up with that one, though."

The church's effort may prove Latin still has a weak pulse but the scholars, at least, are feisty.

"Personally, I consider it a bit of a gimmick," one complained. "But please don't say that, because among my colleagues it could result in a quick lynching."

A Latin student at North Sydney Boys' High, Kevin Wu, was worried that the Vatican - which uses medieval Latin - might pollute the classical version.

"The risk is, classical Latin will be forgotten rather than living in the hearts of academics and being upheld as the pinnacle of literacy as it is now," he said. "It will be degraded."

with The Telegraph, London