Some town councils in England have taken to prohibiting government employees from using such Latin words as “status quo,” “bona fide,” “vice versa,” “via,” “et cetera,” “per se,” and “quid pro quo.” The rationale for such a ban is that these words are “elitist” and “discriminatory.” Apparently, government officials exercising coercive power over others is not regarded as “elitist!”
Such a measure was praised by one person who noted that the “national literacy level is about 12 years and the vast majority of people hardly ever use these terms.” Perhaps the low literacy level has something to do with the poor quality of state education. Another cause may lie in the failure to recognize the added richness of thought that arises from other languages, fostering a complexity that permits one to better “discriminate” amongst subtle meanings of words. As a 13 year old in a government school, I was required to study Latin. I don’t know to what extent this added to my adult literacy level exceeding that of most 12 year olds, but I suspect that the challenge of having to refine the meaning of words was far more beneficial to such ends.
George Orwell would have quickly grasped the implications of such restraints on the mind.
