List of Latin phrases (C)

|- |combinatio nova||new combination||It is frequently abbreviated comb. nov.. It is used in the life sciences literature when a new name is introduced, e.g. Klebsiella granulomatis comb. nov.. |- |comedamus et bibamus, cras enim moriemur||let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die||Latin translation of no. 72 of John Chrysostom's 88 Greek homilies on the Gospel of John, citing |- |communibus annis||in common years||One year with another; on an average. "Common" here does not mean "ordinary", but "common to every situation" |- |communibus locis||in common places||A term frequently used among philosophical and other writers, implying some medium, or mean relation between several places; one place with another; on a medium. "Common" here does not mean "ordinary", but "common to every situation" |- |communis opinio||common opinion||prevailing doctrine, generally accepted view (in an academic field), scientific consensus; originally communis opinio doctorum, "common opinion of the doctors" |- |compos mentis||in control of the mind||Describes someone of sound mind. Sometimes used ironically. Also a legal principle, non compos mentis (not in control of one's faculties), used to describe an insane person. |- |concilio et labore||by wisdom and effort||Motto of the city of Manchester |- |concordia cum veritate||in harmony with truth||Motto of the University of Waterloo |- |concordia salus||well-being through harmony||Motto of Montreal; Bank of Montreal coat of arms and motto |- |concordia parvae res crescunt||small things grow in harmony||Motto of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors and the corresponding schools for girls and for boys, Crosby, and in Northwood. |- |condemnant quod non intellegunt||They condemn what they do not understand or They condemn because they do not understand ||The quod here is ambiguous: it may be the relative pronoun or a conjunction. |- |condicio sine qua non||condition without which not||A required, indispensable condition. Commonly mistakenly rendered with conditio ("seasoning" or "preserving") in place of condicio ("arrangement" or "condition"). |- |conditur in petra||it is founded on the rock||Motto of Peterhouse Boys' School and Peterhouse Girls' School |- |confer (cf.)||compare||The abbreviation cf. is used in text to suggest a comparison with something else (cf. citation signal). |- |Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris C.Ss.R||Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer||Redemptorists |- |coniunctis viribusconiunctis viribus||with connected strength||Or "with united powers". Sometimes rendered conjunctis viribus. Motto of Queen Mary, University of London. |- |consensu||with consent |- |consuetudo pro lege servatur||Custom serves for law.||Where there are no specific laws, the matter should be decided by custom; established customs have the force of laws. Also consuetudo est altera lex (custom is another law) and consuetudo vincit communem legem (custom overrules the common law); see also: Consuetudinary. |- |consummatum est||It is completed.||The last words of Jesus on the cross in the Latin translation of John 19:30. |- |contemptus mundi/saeculi||scorn for the world/times||Despising the secular world. The monk or philosopher's rejection of a mundane life and worldly values. |- |contra bonos mores||against good morals||Offensive to the conscience and to a sense of justice. |- |contra legem||against law||Especially in civil law jurisdictions, said of an understanding of a statute that directly contradicts its wording and thus is valid neither by interpretation nor by analogy. |- |contra mundum||against the world||against public opinion; see also contra mundum injunction, enforceable against anyone, rather than a named party; Athanasius Contra Mundum, Athanasius of Alexandria, 4th-century Christian patriarch and theologian, exiled five times by four emperors. |- |contra proferentem||against the proferror||In contract law, the doctrine of contractual interpretation which provides that an ambiguous term will be construed against the party that imposed its inclusion in the contract – or, more accurately, against the interests of the party who imposed it. |- |contra spem spero||I hope against hope||Title of a poem by Lesya Ukrainka; it derives from an expression found in Paul's Letter to the Romans 4:18 (Greek: παρ' ἐλπίδα ἐπ' ἐλπίδι, Latin: contra spem in spe[m]) with reference to Abraham the Patriarch who maintained faith in becoming the father of many nations despite being childless and well-advanced in years. |- |contra vim mortis non crescit herba (or salvia) in hortis||No herb (or sage) grows in the gardens against the power of death||there is no medicine against death; from various medieval medicinal texts |- |contradictio in terminis||contradiction in terms||Something that would embody a contradiction with the very definition of one of its terms; for example, payment for a gift, or a circle with corners. The fallacy of proposing such a thing. |- |contra principia negantem non est disputandum||there can be no debate with those who deny the foundations||Debate is fruitless when you don't agree on common rules, facts, presuppositions. |- |cor ad cor loquitur||heart speaks to heart||From Augustine's Confessions, referring to a prescribed method of prayer: having a "heart to heart" with God. Commonly used in reference to a later quote by Cardinal John Henry Newman. A motto of Newman Clubs. |- |cor aut mors||Heart or Death||(Your choice is between) The Heart (Moral Values, Duty, Loyalty) or Death (to no longer matter, no longer to be respected as person of integrity.) |- |cor meum tibi offero domine prompte et sincere||my heart I offer to you Lord promptly and sincerely||John Calvin's personal motto, also adopted by Calvin College |- |cor unum||one heart||A popular school motto and often used as a name for religious and other organisations such as the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. |- |coram||in the presence of||Used before a list of the names of the judges on a panel hearing a particular case. |- |coram Deo||in the presence of God||A phrase from Christian theology which summarizes the idea of Christians living in the presence of, under the authority of, and to the honor and glory of God; see also coram Deo. |- |coram episcopo||in the presence of the bishop||Refers to the celebration of Mass in the Roman Catholic Church where the bishop is present but does not preside over the service. Cf. coram Summo Pontifice, in the presence of the Pope, in similar circumstances. |- |coram nobis, coram vobis||in our presence, in your presence||Two kinds of writs of error, calling for the decision to be reviewed by the same court that made it. Coram nobis is short for quae coram nobis resident (let them, i.e. the matters on the court record, remain before us), and was the form historically used for the Court of King's Bench; the "us" means the King, who was theoretically the head of that court. Coram vobis is the analogous version ("let the matters remain before you") for the Court of Common Pleas, where the King did not sit, even notionally. |- |coram non judice||not before a judge||legal proceeding that is outside the presence of a judge, thus a violation of the law and a nullity |- |coram populo||in the presence of the people|| |- |coram publico||in view of the public|| |- |Corpus Christi||Body of Christ||The name of a feast in the Roman Catholic Church commemorating the Eucharist. It is also the name of a city in Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, the name of Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge universities, and a controversial play. |- |corpus delicti||body of the offence||The fact that a crime has been committed, a necessary factor in convicting someone of having committed that crime; if there was no crime, there can not have been a criminal. |- |Corpus Iuris Canonici||Body of Canon Law||The official compilation of canon law in the Roman Catholic Church (cf. Codex Iuris Canonici). |- |Corpus Juris Civilis||Body of Civil Law||The body of Roman or civil law. |- |corpus vilecorpus vile||worthless body||A person or thing fit only to be the object of an experiment, as in the phrase 'Fiat experimentum in corpore vili.' |- |corrigendacorrigenda||things to be corrected|| |- |corruptio optimi pessimacorruptio optimi pessima||the corruption of the best is the worst|| |- |corruptissima re publica plurimae legescorruptissima re publica plurimae leges||When the republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous||Tacitus |- |corvus oculum corvi non eruitcorvus oculum corvi non eruit||a raven does not pick out an eye of another raven|| |- |corruptus in extremiscorruptus in extremis||corrupt to the extreme||Motto of the fictional Mayor's office in The Simpsons |- |cras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit, cras ametcras amet qui nunquam amavit; quique amavit, cras amet||May he who has never loved before, love tomorrow; And may he who has loved, love tomorrow as well||The refrain from the 'Pervigilium Veneris', a poem which describes a three-day holiday in the cult of Venus, located somewhere in Sicily, involving the whole town in religious festivities joined with a deep sense of nature and Venus as the "procreatrix", the life-giving force behind the natural world. |- |cras es nostercras es noster||Tomorrow, be ours||As "The Future is Ours", motto of San Jacinto College, Texas |- |creatio ex nihilocreatio ex nihilo||creation out of nothing||A concept about creation, often used in a theological or philosophical context. Also known as the 'First Cause' argument in philosophy of religion. Contrasted with creatio ex materia. |- |Credo in Unum Deum||I Believe in One God||The first words of the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed. |- |credo quia absurdum est||I believe it because it is absurd||A very common misquote of Tertullian's et mortuus est Dei Filius prorsus credibile quia ineptum est (and the Son of God is dead: in short, it is credible because it is unfitting), meaning that it is so absurd to say that God's son has died that it would have to be a matter of belief, rather than reason. The misquoted phrase, however, is commonly used to mock the dogmatic beliefs of the religious (see fideism). This phrase is commonly shortened to credo quia absurdum, and is also sometimes rendered credo quia impossibile est (I believe it because it is impossible) or, as Darwin used it in his autobiography, credo quia incredibile. |- |credo ut intelligam||I believe so that I may understand||A motto of St Anselm, used as the motto of St. Anselm Hall, Manchester |- |crescamus in Illo per omnia||May we grow in Him through all things||Motto of Cheverus High School |- |crescat scientia vita excolatur||let knowledge grow, let life be enriched||Motto of the University of Chicago; often rendered in English as an iambic tetrameter, "Let knowledge grow from more to more, and so be human life enriched". |- |crescente luce||Light ever increasing||Motto of James Cook University |- |Crescite et multiplicamini||Increase and multiply||Motto of Maryland until 1874 |- |crescit cum commercio civitascrescit cum commercio civitas||Civilization prospers with commerce||Motto of Claremont McKenna College. |- |crescit eundocrescit eundo||it grows as it goes||From Lucretius' De rerum natura book VI, where it refers in context to the motion of a thunderbolt across the sky, which acquires power and momentum as it goes. This metaphor was adapted as the state motto of New Mexico (adopted in 1887 as the territory's motto, and kept in 1912 when New Mexico received statehood) and is seen on the seal. Also the motto of Rocky Mount, Virginia and Omega Delta Phi. |- |cruci dum spiro fidocruci dum spiro fido||while I live, I trust in the cross, Whilst I trust in the Cross I have life||Motto of the Sisters of Loreto (IBVM) and its associated schools. |- |cucullus non facit monachumcucullus non facit monachum||The hood does not make the monk||William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act 1, scene 5, 53–54 |- |cui bono||Good for whom?||"Who benefits?" An adage in criminal investigation which suggests that considering who would benefit from an unwelcome event is likely to reveal who is responsible for that event (cf. cui prodest). Also the motto of the Crime Syndicate of America, a fictional supervillain group. The opposite is cui malo (Bad for whom?). |- |cui multum sit datum, multum ab eo postulabiturcui multum sit datum, multum ab eo postulabitur||to whom much is given, much is expected||Motto of The Brooklyn Latin School. |- |cui prodestcui prodest||for whom it advances||Short for cui prodest scelus is fecit (for whom the crime advances, he has done it) in Seneca's Medea. Thus, the murderer is often the one who gains by the murder (cf. cui bono). |- |cuique suum||to each his own|| |- |cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos||Whose the land is, all the way to the sky and to the underworld is his.||First coined by Accursius of Bologna in the 13th century. A Roman legal principle of property law that is no longer observed in most situations today. Less literally, "For whosoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to the sky and down to the depths." |- |cuius regio, eius religio||whose region, his religion||The privilege of a ruler to choose the religion of his subjects. A regional prince's ability to choose his people's religion was established at the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. |- |cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare.cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare.||Anyone can err, but only the fool persists in his fault||Cicero, Philippica XII, 5. |- |culpaculpa||fault||Also "blame" or "guilt". In law, an act of neglect. In general, guilt, sin, or a fault. See also mea culpa. |- |Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate |With God for Fatherland and Liberty