Latin in Everyday Life

Brian Tierney

I periodically find miscellaneous references to Latin as well as Roman culture. It has actually made experiencing pop culture much more interesting, due to Latin's obscurity when compared to other, not-dead, languages it makes the references I understand feel like a secret and adds some dimension to whatever it is.
The first reference that came to mind happened all the way back in 8th grade, while creating a project on a specific aspect of World War I. During the genesis of the assignment, I got a list of the topics I could cover; and I chose to cover weapons that have now been banned, due to the Geneva Conventions. As a result of my choice the topic of Mustard Gas came up and while researching it I found that the technical name for Mustard Gas is actually Lacrimat Gas, due to causing the exposed to unwilling evacuate their tear ducts. The word Lacrimat comes from the Latin, Lacrimo, which means, "To cry".
As a late I have been occasionally listening to a podcast by the creator of Community and Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon, called Harmontown. When discussing podcasts, especially those that are on Youtube, where I would listen, usually the poster would just put the logo for the podcast on the screen the whole time. This happened to be the case, and while looking at the logo I saw that it actually resembled a crest. The Latin on the crest states, "Scribimus Latinum Sine Intellectum" which translates as, "We Write Latin Without Understanding".
To continue the theme of Dan Harmon, I guess, due to my interest in his podcast I also decided to rewatch a bit of his show, Community, and I remembered the flag of the school in the show, the entiretyof which I can not state; however, I can say that their motto began with the phrase, "E Pluribus" meaning, "Out of many" this is a play on the famous phrase, "E Pluribus Unum" which means, "Out of many, one" commonly seen on U.S currency.
Also fairly recently I was watching a video called: "Real Lawyer Reacts to Better Call Saul" and during this video the reactor, in critiquing Saul and his ability as a lawyer mentions, "Res ipsa loquiter" meaning, "the thing speaks for itself". This is used frequently in law when discussing evidence that no further explanation is required with.