culpable - adj - Deserving blame or censure; blameworthy.
From my Latin mass days:
Mea culpa!
Mea culpa!
Mea maxima culpa!
(Through my fault! Through my fault! Through my most grievous fault!) The reference is to Christ's atonement for the sins of mankind through his death on the cross.
Today's example shows yet again how even a little knowledge of Latin (and Greek) helps build our English vocabulary. Wolf, you already knew that, but will you deny that most English speakers would benefit greatly by taking a page from our book?
2 comments:
I would not deny it. Indeed one of the charter schools to which we have considered matriculating Camron has as a required course the study of Latin.
Good for both of you. I can't say I enjoyed studying Latin ("Latin's a dead language," etc.), and I've forgotten most of what was drummed into me, but it's been a great help in ways I never would have expected back when I was reciting, "-A -AE -AE -AM -A -AE -ARUM -IS -AS -IS." (See DEAD POETS SOCIETY for an all-too-accurate example.)
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