Latin Lovers Unite

Using Latin Abbreviations in Different Types of Writing

Today’s Shelf Life is of the phone-in variety because I went to the dentist last week and picked up some upper respiratory crud. It is not the zeitgeistial plague; just a cough. I went through my list of topics and picked the one I thought I could do most easily and quickly and I hope that turns out to be true. Perhaps you should skip this morning’s Shelf Life. It’s probably not going to be very good.

I’d say you need not bother because there won’t be anything in here you don’t already know except that as an editor, I see misused Latin abbreviations all the time. I don’t know if it’s because people truly don’t know or if they don’t stop to assess which Latin abbreviation they need and they just toss one in there. Anyway, what I’m getting at is you might not need this article, lovely Shelf Life readers who probably know all this already, but there do exist writers out there who could use a primer on these because I find them used incorrectly in texts all the time. If you have been using any of these abbreviations incorrectly, you are in excellent company because a lot of people do.

For what it’s worth, my favorite Latin “abbreviation” (this one’s not really an abbreviation) is the editing and proofreading term stet, which is a Latin word meaning “let it stand” (from stare, to stand). If you see a change someone has requested and you want that change to not be made—because it introduces an error, or contravenes style, or you just don’t like it, or whatever, you write “stet” next to it and circle the word “stet” (in typesetting conventions, a circled word means “this is an instruction” while anything that is not circled is meant to be input exactly as written). This tells the person who is inputting the changes to “let it stand” (as it was originally set) and not make the indicated change.

Sarah Gailey wrote a whole short story called “Stet”; it was published in Fireside in 2018.

So regarding Latin abbreviations (and Latin shorthand phrases that are not strictly abbreviations): It’s not always appropriate to use them in every context. For example, most style manuals indicate that Latin abbreviations should be spelled out—in English, not in Latin—when used in running text, and should appear in their abbreviated form only within parentheses or in tabular content. That is, you should write them out as you would speak them in English when you’re just writing regular text. Latin abbreviations should also be used with discretion in dialogue; many characters might say “et cetera” even when speaking English (not “etc”), but nobody I’ve ever met says “id est” when they’re just running their mouth.

The balance of this article is dedicated to the Latin abbreviations (and shorthand Latin phrases) we use often in English, and what they actually mean (and therefore how to use them correctly), and how to spell them out as English words at in the appropriate contexts for that.

Exempli Gratia, Id Est, and Videlicet

Exempli gratia (eg) and id est (ie) are the biggest offenders for being used incorrectly, and then both of them frequently get tangled up with videlicet (viz). If every writer who reads this article takes away one thing, it should be this one: Exempli gratia (eg) and id est (ie) do not mean the same thing and should not be used interchangeably.

Exempli gratia means “for example.” Id est means “that is” or “in other words.” You should use “eg” when you’re giving an example of something, for example, “I enjoy fancy coffee drinks, eg, mocha lattes.” A mocha latte is an example of a fancy coffee drink. You should use “ie” when you are giving an explanation or additional clarifying information, for example, “I enjoy fancy coffee drinks, ie, I like going to Starbucks.” In this example, I clarified that Starbucks is where I like to go for fancy coffee drinks.

If I were to say, “I enjoy fancy coffee drinks, ie, mocha lattes,” I am not saying “I enjoy fancy coffee drinks, for example, mocha lattes.” I am saying “I enjoy fancy coffee drinks, that is, mocha lattes”—I’m saying I specifically enjoy mocha lattes and not other fancy coffee drinks; I am clarifying that the type of fancy coffee drink I enjoy is a mocha latte.

If I were to say, “I enjoy fancy coffee drinks, eg, Starbucks,” I am implying that “Starbucks” is an example of a fancy coffee drink. Most readers would still catch the intended meaning here and understand that I am saying “I enjoy fancy coffee drinks, for example, the kind you get at Starbucks.” 

In running text or dialogue, you should spell these out using their English equivalents, “for example” for exempli gratia and “that is” or “in other words” for id est.

What about videlicet (viz)? This Latin term means “it is permitted to see” and is used to mean “namely,” “to wit,” or “specifically.” If you give a general term and then follow it with a list of specifics, that’s the correct use of viz: “I enjoy fancy coffee drinks, viz, mocha lattes, flat whites, caramel macchiatos, iced espressos, and pumpkin spice lattes.” You could spell this out in English as “namely.”

Et Cetera and Et Alia

Et cetera (etc or &c) means “and the rest” while et alia (et al) means “and the others.” You use “et al” when “the others” refers to people and “etc” when “the rest” refers to things, specifically inanimate objects. If you were to refer to “Maxine, Laila, [and the other dogs]” I’d probably go with “et al.”

In running text, et cetera should be spelled out in its English equivalent, most usually as “and so on.” That is, instead of writing “I went to the store for milk, bread, toilet paper, et cetera” you should write “I went to the store for milk, bread, toilet paper, and so on.” “And the rest” is also a fine way to spell this out in English as long as it makes sense in context. It’s also worth noting that, in my opinion, it’s fine to use et cetera in its Latin spelling in English dialogue because English speakers say it all the time.

When “and the rest” is people and you’re using “et al,” it can be spelled out a few different ways depending on who you’re talking about. We make this change all the time in medical journal articles when the author writes something like “Smith et al, in their 1999 article, wrote” (and so on). Because “Smith et al” appears in running text, I would spell this out “Smith and colleagues, in their 1999 article.” If the citation is in parentheses you can leave “et al” in situ (haha there’s another one; in situ means “on site” or “in position,” that is, “in the original place”), like this: “A 1999 article on this this topic (Smith et al 1999) states” (and so on). 

While we’re on the topic of citations, “op cit” (opere citato) means “in the work cited” and is used to reference further information from a previous cited source, for instance if I were giving you further information out of Smith et al 1999 in this paragraph, I could use “op cit” as shorthand to let you know I’m still citing Smith et al 1999 because I haven’t cited anything different between then and now. This is similar to how you use “ibid” (ibidem, “in the same place”).

If you’re not referring to a team of researchers, you can spell this out in another appropriate way. If you were saying, “Catherine, Mandie, Ellie, et al” to refer to me and my friends, you might spell it out “Catherine, Mandie, Ellie, and their other friends.” If you’re referring to people more loosely grouped, you might just say “and others,” for example, Nobel Prize laureates: “Hemingway, Morrison, Szymborska, and others.”

Fun Fact: Ante Meridiem and Post Meridiem

Ante meridiem (am) refers to all times before midday (midnight to 11:59 in the morning) and post meridiem (pm) refers to all times after midday (12:01 to 11:59 in the evening). Twelve o’clock noon, midday, is neither am nor pm, but just m by itself (12:00m)—12 noon is the meridiem. I learned this in college. This was very expensive knowledge for me but I’m giving it to you for free.

Confer

Confer (cf) means “compare” and is used to direct the reader to a citation so that they may compare what they’re reading in your text to what they read in the text you cited; in this sense, it is often spelled out in English as “see,” like this: “And that is why, empirically, scrambled is the most efficient preparation for eggs given the resources required and  the quality of the end result (cf Smith et al 1999)” in which, we must assume, the article by Smith and colleagues from 1999 is on the subject of egg preparation.

Cf should not be used as a substitute for the English word “compare” or the phrase “compare with,” like this: “Horses can run pretty fast, cf mules, which are much slower.” Do not do this.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum and Ergo

Quod erat demonstrandum (QED) means “that which was to be demonstrated” and ergo means “therefore.” It helps me use QED correctly to think of it as meaning “as I just demonstrated” or “as expected” because it follows a logical argument or mathematical proof of something, and indicates that the argument or theorem is done. For example: “all dogs are mammals, and all dachshunds are dogs, therefore all dachshunds are mammals, QED.” 

QED must come at the end of the argument or proof, after whatever it is has been proved. It should never be used in place of therefore—that’s ergo: “All dogs are mammals, and all dachshunds are dogs, ergo all dachshunds are mammals. QED!”

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