Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Latin?

\Lat"in\, a. [F., fr. L. Latinus belonging to Latium, Latin, fr. Latium a country of Italy, in which Rome was situated. Cf. {Ladin}, Lateen sail, under {Lateen}.] 1. Of or pertaining to Latium, or to the Latins, a people of Latium; Roman; as, the Latin language. 2. Of, pertaining to, or composed in, the language used by the Romans or Latins; as, a Latin grammar; a Latin composition or idiom. {Latin Church} (Eccl. Hist.), the Western or Roman Catholic Church, as distinct from the Greek or Eastern Church. {Latin cross}. See Illust. 1 of {Cross}. {Latin races}, a designation sometimes loosely given to certain nations, esp. the French, Spanish, and Italians, who speak languages principally derived from Latin. {Latin Union}, an association of states, originally comprising France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, which, in 1865, entered into a monetary agreement, providing for an identity in the weight and fineness of the gold and silver coins of those countries, and for the amounts of each kind of coinage by each. Greece, Servia, Roumania, and Spain subsequently joined the Union.
\Lat"in\, n. 1. A native or inhabitant of Latium; a Roman. 2. The language of the ancient Romans. 3. An exercise in schools, consisting in turning English into Latin. [Obs.] --Ascham. 4. (Eccl.) A member of the Roman Catholic Church. {Dog Latin}, barbarous Latin; a jargon in imitation of Latin; as, the log Latin of schoolboys. {Late Latin}, {Low Latin}, terms used indifferently to designate the latest stages of the Latin language; low Latin (and, perhaps, late Latin also), including the barbarous coinages from the French, German, and other languages into a Latin form made after the Latin had become a dead language for the people. {Law Latin}, that kind of late, or low, Latin, used in statutes and legal instruments; -- often barbarous.
\Lat"in\, v. t. To write or speak in Latin; to turn or render into Latin. [Obs.] --Fuller.