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Latin in Football

Latin is ubiquitous (meaning ‘wide spread’ the word ubiquitous comes from the Latin word ubique  meaning ‘everywhere’). In fact many people are surprised by just how much Latin is peppered throughout our everyday language.  For instance, did you know that a.m. and p.m. are abbreviations of Latin words?  A.M. stands for ante meridiem and p.m. stands for post meridiem.  Ante means before, post means after and meridiem means midday, therefore a.m. and p.m. mean before and after midday. Latin can even be found amongst famous brand names such as Nivea  (which comes from the word niveus/nivea/niveum, which means 'snow-white’) and Lego (which means ‘I put together’). 
Many football teams also have Latin mottos.  For instance, Manchester City Football Club’s motto is  ‘Superbia in Proelio”, which means “Pride in Battle”.  This short but sweet snippet of Latin appears on every replica club shirt and over 300,000 of these were sold last season alone. Everyone who watches football, and especially the 50,000 people who pack-out Manchester City’s stadium each week, couldn’t possibly claim that Latin is dead—in fact they’d have to admit, it’s very much alive and kicking!

 Plenty more top football teams also embrace Latin: Everton say “nil satis nisi optimum” (nothing but the best); Blackburn Rovers plump for “arte et labore” (by skill and labour); and Tottenham proclaim “audere est facere” (to dare is to do). In fact, every time you say the word “stadium” you’re speaking Latin without realising it. Stadium, ‘stadia’ (in its plural form) is the Latin word for an ancient Roman distance of about 185m used for foot races.

Another amazing fact is that the Latin motto on Manchester City’s badge isn’t just an archaic quirk left over from the days of yore; the team only added it to the badge in 1997. And since this time Manchester City has flourished and transformed from being a third tier team to double Premier League champions. It must be the Latin…

Sporting words from Latin

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