9. Alten Ego: Cicero, Roman philosopher and Statesman, coined this word, most likely taken from Greek, to mean ‘a second self’ or ‘another I’. Its modern meaning hasn’t changed much today. Many people may have observed an Alter ego in themselves; perhaps another hidden aspect of themselves.
10. Sic: Used like this: [ (sic) ] found in writing when quoting a statement or writing. It indicates that there is a spelling or grammar error (or just something out of the ordinary) in the original quotation and that the publication has only reproduced it faithfully; not having made any error of their own.
11. Exempli gratia: This is nothing but the expansion for the common abbreviation we use in daily writing: ‘e.g’. It means ‘for the sake of example’. Thus when it is seen in a sentence, it means that the sentence will be followed by a set of examples you would be giving to highlight a point you would want to explain further.
12. Et cetera: Many of us may not know how we use this phrase when it is spelt out like this but what it actually represents is the common abbreviation we use; ‘etc’. This means ‘and the others’. It is used to denote that a list of things could continue, and infinitum and that for the sake of brevity it is better to just wrap up things with a simple ‘etc’.
13. In toto: It means ‘in all’ or ‘entirely’. It also means saying something ‘in total’. It also means, ‘in the whole’ and ‘as a whole’. Of course, some of you might be reminded of the cute little dog Toto featuring in the story ‘The Wizard of 02’.
14. De facto: In Latin, de facto means ‘from the fact’ and while used in English, it is often used to distinguish what is supposed to be the case from what is actually the reality.
Foreg: legally employers are not allowed to discrimate in hiring because of age, but many still practice de facto (in reality, in fact) discrimination.
15. ibidem: Another abbreviated term, this word is most commonly seen in research writing in the form of ‘ibid’. From the Latin for, ‘in the same place’, this abbreviated form is found in footnotes and in bibliographies to designate that the same source has been cited twice in succession.
16. Et alii: You are less likely to see this word in its unabbreviated form ever; you will only see it as ‘et al’, when included. This is also a term found in footnotes bibliographies which allows writers to refer to a large number of authors without having to write each name out. For e.g., you could say, ‘even Dr. Steve Walls, et al has presented a paper about this topic’.
17. In Vivo: An experiment talking place in a glass test tube might not cause much of a stir. But one elone ‘In Vivo’ could raise many an eyebrow up! ‘In Vivo means’ within the living’ and the two most common examples one could think of might be the kinds of experimentation like animal testing and clinical trials.
18. In Situ: If anything happens ‘in situ’ it happens in place or on a site, tho’ the term often designates something that exists in a natural or original state. Like, for eg., a rare species sighted ‘in situ’ or an invaluable artifact found on an archaeological site.
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