Even if you’re not Hermione Granger with a wand made of a dragon’s heartstring, you still have the magical power of summoning all of the vocabulary knowledge you could ever need just by picking up a dictionary – or using the modern wizardry of the internet, calling one up on line. In order to understand the words in the spells used at Hogwarts, however, you’ll need to call up a Latin dictionary; many of the spells are composed of Latin or pseudo-Latin words. In fact, because of the popularity of the Harry Potter series, some schools are noticing an increasing interest among students in learning Latin!

Up until the middle of the 20th century, Latin was actually fairly common as a required subject in highschool and colleges in England and the United States. Many academic professionals see Latin as the basis for a good knowledge of the English language, as well as skill in medical and scientific fields which still use Latin terminology. Currently there are over three dozen schools in the New York City area alone that have added Latin to their list of languages, along with the more common French, German, and Spanish.

You don’t need to study the language in order to improve your vocabulary, but since Latin root words form the basis of many English words, it’s good to take a little time to do some etymological research. In addition, there are common Latin phrases that are still used in English conversation. If you want to be part of the group of highly-educated and literate professionals who benefit from a knowledge of Latin word origins (or at least want to sound as if you are!) then study these phrases and you’ll soon be a wizard of words.

non sequitur (nahn SEH-kwi-toor)
A statement that doesn’t logically fit into the flow of what was previously said or discussed.

ad infinitum (add in-fih-NIGH-toom)
Forever, to infinity – in general used to mean “unchanging, without end.”

in vitro (een VEE-troh)
Literally “in glass,” this refers to something that happens in a laboratory (usually in a culture dish or test tube) as opposed to inside the body (in vivo). Most common in the phrase “in vitro fertilization.”

tempus fugit (TEHM-pus FOO-jeet)
“Time flies” (or as Virgil said, Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore).