1

I read a sentence in Word by Word by Kory Stamper which was:

To one group of people, the dictionary was handed to humanity ex coeli, a hallowed leather-clad tome of truth and which term as infallible as God.

What is the meaning of highlighted word in the sentence?

5
  • 4
    "ex coeli" is not English, it is Latin. It means "from heaven". Ex = from; coeli = sky (in this context, heaven)
    – RubioRic
    Jul 4, 2019 at 8:41
  • @RubioRic post an answer, then...
    – Len
    Jul 5, 2019 at 2:01
  • @Len I think that this question should be closed because is not about the English language. Maybe it should be posted in latin.stackexchange.com
    – RubioRic
    Jul 5, 2019 at 7:23
  • @RubioRic "English" is a wonderful polyglot of many languages. It took over from Latin as the lingua franca and inherited many Latin words. youtube.com/watch?v=H3r9bOkYW9s
    – Ron Jensen
    Jul 9, 2019 at 3:13
  • English had adopted many Latin phrases before anyone used English much as an inter-language. Aug 20, 2019 at 1:44

2 Answers 2

2

Answered in the comments:

"ex coeli" is not English, it is Latin. It means "from heaven". Ex = from; coeli = sky (in this context, heaven) – RubioRic Jul 4 at 8:41

Checking a few dictionaries and translators, this appears to be only Latin. It hasn't been fully assimilated like "ad hoc", "alibi", "bona fide" and many others.

0

I found the answers in a Latin-English dictionary. "Ex" means "from" in Latin, "coeli", "heaven". So it should be translated as "..., the dictionary was handed to humanity from heaven."

The Latin-English dictionary that I mentioned above: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_Latin_phrases_(full)

Recently I have been reading the book Word by Word. Really into it. It's 100% a book ex coeli.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .