Ad Infinitum
A Latin tag is a Latin phrase or expression conventionally used in the English language, either in ordinary speech and writing or as terminology associated with specific fields such as law, medicine, logic, administration, religion, and scholarship. Some occur as complete phrases, sayings or maxims, while others primarily appear in an abbreviated form.
Many Latin tags have become substantially incorporated into the English language, with examples in widespread use including ad hoc, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, bona fide, de facto and de jure, per capita, per se, prima facie, quid pro quo, sine qua non, status quo, and vice versa, while many others remain principally associated with particular professions, scholarly writing, formal discourse, mottos, or the like.
Latin tags have historically been associated with education and learned discourse. The Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language reports that they were widely used up to about the mid-20th century, sometimes deliberately as a signal of the user's education. As this practice declined, less familiar tags became less common and less widely understood, and their use has come to be regarded as affected or unnecessary.
Examples of expressions that have become firmly established in particular fields include habeas corpus, and sub judice in law; locum tenens, placebo, and post mortem in medicine; argumentum ad hominem, non sequitur, and reductio ad absurdum in logic; and ad hoc, quorum, and sine die in administration. Latin also survives in numerous conventional scholarly abbreviations, particularly those used with respect to citation, such as ibid. (an abbreviation for the Latin word ibīdem, meaning 'in the same place'), op. cit. (an abbreviation of the Latin phrase opus citatum or opere citato), (meaning 'the work cited' or 'in the cited work', respectively), passim, cf. (for Latin confer or conferatur, both meaning 'compare'), e.g. (exempli gratia), and i.e. (id est).
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