Hi! I just had a random linguistic question. I was thinking of terms like “alma mater” and graduation designations like “cum laude” etc. and even in academic writing we commonly have phrases like “ad hominem” or “ad nauseum”. Why have these terms persisted in English societies, and where did integration of them with academia come from?
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One point that I appreciate about “using latin words instead of english ones” is an example of somewhere that we *don’t*. And that is botany.
“Fruit” is an english word that can be used in biology and botany situations. The thing is, “Fruit” is also an english word that means a certain type of food. Now that “WeLl AkTuAlLy” people know about the biological and botanical definition, we have endless debates about tomatoes and cucumbers (when the correct answer is that multiple definitions means there can be multiple answers). Meanwhile, if we had stuck with a non-english word for the scientific side of things, the debates and what definition is being talked about would be more clear.
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