At 11 A.M. I was already running late. I needed to get my job application in the mail before 1 P.M., so I knew I had to get started. When I opened the application, however, I was puzzled to see “BONA FORTUNA” on the top of it. Sending the phrase through Google, I discovered that it meant “Good luck” in Latin. “Latin?” I thought. “Nobody uses Latin. It's been dead for hundreds of years.”

I put the Latin mystery out of my mind and began working, copying my curriculum vitae, and noting that I had graduated summa cum laude in A.D. 2008. For references, I listed Dr. Richard Payne, professor emeritus at my alma mater.

Then came a number of surprising questions, e.g., “What was the topic of the best paper you have written?” (my answer: “Antebellum Alter Egos of Famous Americans”); “What caveats have you heard about working for us?” (my answer: My university magnum opus won't be fully appreciated); “What do you see yourself doing c. 2012 (e.g., will your life be status quo or will you have a different job)?” (my answer: I'll have proven myself invaluable to the company; ergo, I will have been promoted).

Glancing at the clock, I discovered my time was almost up. “My goodness! Tempus fugit,” I said to myself as I signed the application and stuffed it into the envelope. Even as I dropped the envelope into the mailbox, I was still scratching my head, trying to figure out the strange greeting in Latin, the dead language.

The writer in the previous anecdote seems puzzled by the introduction of a “dead language,” but then he or she writes at least fifteen Latin words, phrases, and abbreviations in contemporary use: A.M., P.M., curriculum vitae, summa cum laude, A. D., emeritus, alma mater, e.g., antebellum, alter egos, caveats, magnum opus, i.e., ergo, tempus fugit.

a.d. (Anno Domini) year of our Lord; used to designate a time after Christ was born

Because Latin no longer has any native speakers, some call it a “dead language” (more about that later). But maybe a better description would be that it's an “ancestral language.”

Latin, you see, is parens (Latin for parent) to a number of modern languages,

which are collectively called “Romance languages.” Don't think, though, that they have this moniker because they evoke passion and love; the real reason is that they descend from the language of Rome. As the influence of the Holy Roman Empire spread across Europe, so did its language — Latin. Then, as the power of the empire decreased, dialects began and over many years, separate languages arose. These became Romance languages that we know today as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.

(In case you're wondering, in spite of English having so much Latin in it, it's basically a Germanic tongue. But we'll leave that for another chapter.)