Why are Latin and Greek words still heavily used everywhere? Like university frats and sororities, latin honors, and Biological terms? Why would they not use the English equivalent words instead for these words specifically?
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Latin specifically was once the defacto universal language of Europe.
The Catholic church adopted Latin as its official language both because the Bible was written in Latin and also to have a standard language for the priesthood across Europe.
The Aristocracy learned Latin as well for similar reasons. So for centuries being able to speak Latin was a sign that you were wealthy and/or part of ruling class or clergy.
When the first Universities were founded the church was involved because for centuries churches had been the keepers of books and old knowledge.
Europe was coming out of a dark age and in order to build up this new system of education they had to start somewhere.
The new scientist class studied the Classics Greek and Latin books because the science, engineering, and math of those cultures was the basis for higher knowledge in Europe and was considered by many of that era to have been the Golden Age of Europe.
So learning Ancient Greek and Latin was mandatory for the scientist class and it became the language of science by necessity.
This is the history of why so many things in science are named after Greek and Latin words because it fell into fashion for scientists to use their newly learned languages to name the various things they were cataloging and discovering.
Those were the languages of education hundreds of years ago. Their words worked in with very specific meanings. The benefit for us is that we now have words with very defined specific meanings that don’t shift all the time and they are consistent across multiple languages.
Suppose you are studying the English alphabet. You start with A and end with Z, in an order we are all too familiar with. Now let’s say you suddenly want change the order to follow the qwerty keyboard order.
It just won’t be possible. Thousands and millions of texts will have to be rewritten with the added complexity. That’s not to forget the debates, the questions raised and confusion It’ll bring once it’s implemented. And a little has to also do with the emotions attached to such names and traditions.
Somethings are better just left undisturbed.
Cum Laude ——– with praise
Magna cum lauda ——– with big praise
Summa cum lauda ——- with the highest/biggest/bestest praise
I just sounds better in lattin
The last one is my favorite, because I can’t think of an English equivalent of Summa. Superlative, sure, but not every one knows that word. I would prefer:
“Hey man, how’s your day?” “Summa, bro!” “Hell yeah!, dude!”
Why not? University, fraternity, sorority are all Latin words. English vocabulary is about 30% Latin-root words, languages get changed as the speakers change but apparently 1/3 of your language works already so why change it
Why do you think the english words should be used?
Latin and Greek used to be the languages of academia.
Similarly to how nowadays everyone writing a scientific paper regardless of their origin is likely to write in English, so did people in the past write everything in Latin or Greek.
Latin and Greek were widely taught to everyone who had more than the most rudimentary education.
This meant that using Latin or Greek words instead of normal ones was seen as a sign of class and education.
People gave themselves Latin and Greek names that were the translation of their normal ones. So someone with the German name Gottlieb would call themselves Theophilus or Amadeus for example.
At the same time especially in English which had inherited many Latin originated names from Roman and French invaders people started spelling words not based on how they sound, but in ways that made it clear they had Latin roots. Sometimes they did that for words that didn’t have any.
This has done a number on English orthography and helped make spelling in English as messy as it is today.
Meanwhile everyone who wanted the world to know that they were educated and high class kept using and misusing Latin and Greek words to show off.
At the same time lots of scientific literature accumulated using Latin and Greek words in ways that were different from their literal translation. They were used as labels for very specific concepts with very narrowly defined meaning. Many terms like that were kept around long after Latin and Greek had fallen out of use otherwise because it helps to have clearly defined labels.
In university settings many traditions even very young ones kept using older forms of naming things to capture some reflected glory from actual ancient institutions who had never gotten around to chaining names for things that were actually centuries old.
Using words like that makes you seem like part of the club.
Habit and tradition. Way back in the medieval age latin and greek were used by scholars to communicate since everyone with an education would learn at least one of those languages. As time went on and science progressed we labeled scientific discoveries with latin and greek terms because we were familiar with those terms. It helped a bunch when translating research into other languages and showed no bias for culture or nationality.
By the time we start seeing Fraternities and Sororities greek and latin were so heavily ingrained in the college aesthetic that it would feel wrong to use english equivalents.
France is actually doing for French what you propose for English: They have a “Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language ” which comes up with a French term for the French speaking world for everything that doesn’t have a French term, yet. [Example.](https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2020/05/27/france-invents-new-words-for-podcast-clickbait-and-chick-lit-in-war-on-franglais) And people adopt that more or less quickly.
One disadvantage of this is that they are e.g. actually writing of octets instead of bytes in all their English documentation, too. So a “single language of science” is clearly a benefit.
In addition to the uses people have mentioned, Latin and Greek still retain a lot of the prestige they have had for a very long time.
Western civilization is largely thought to stem from the Roman/Latin and Greek cultures, and at various points in history, (what we’d now call) Westerners looked back to Roman and Greek cultures to reinforce their own. Everything from legal systems, religious doctrines, science and technology, and even architecture, is directly or indirectly influenced by these.
As far as language goes, this prestige meant that it was more prestigious to use Latin and Greek-based words than to use an English one. When grammar mavens started to write self-help books to help the rising merchant class speak and write more like the prestigious nobles, they deliberately wrote style rules that made English more like Latin and Greek.
As our modern education systems developed in the early 1800s, the creators were heavily influenced by the prestige and centrality of Roman/Latin and Greek cultures. So this prestige continued a very long time, especially as the English style got taught to generation after generation. As college men founded social academic clubs, they naturally adopted some of that prestige for their endeavors, describing the clubs with a latin term (fraternities) and giving them names rooted in Greek lettering (Phi Beta Kappa, etc). As women’s colleges popped up they naturally did likewise.
That prestige has dimmed considerably with the rise of the study of economics and business (mid 19th century), the rise of anthropology and social science (20th century), and the importance in academia of science and technology (19th and 20th c). But it lingers.
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