The End of Latin

Or rather,  I  should say “Latin words for death” , If, like me you enjoy impressing your pupils with the rich variety of Latin words  and expressions for the act of killing (necare, trucidare, iugulare, interficere , caedere etc etc), then you might also appreciate this collection of words, largely euphemistic, which account for the act of dying: 

If you want to refer to someone’s departure from life, you could use a conjugated version of one of the following phrases:

• [(de) vita] decedere
• (ex) vita excedere
• ex vita abire
• mortem obire
• de vita exire
• de (ex) vita migrare

In Latin you can “give up the ghost” by saying:

• animam edere or efflare
• extremum vitae spiritum edere

Someone who dies before his time dies in these ways:

• mature decedere
• subita morte exstingui
• mors immatura or praematura

Committing suicide can be done in a variety of ways. Here are Latin expressions connoting self-inflicted death.

• mortem sibi consciscere
• se vita privare
• vitae finem facere

Taking poison for suicide:

• veneno sibi mortem consciscere
• poculum mortis exhaurire
• poculum mortiferem exhaurire

Killing someone violently:

• plagam extremam infligere
• plagam mortiferam infligere

A patriotic Roman death might be described using the following:

• mortem occumbere pro patria
• sanguinem suum pro patria effundere
• vitam profundere pro patria
• se morti offerre pro salute patriae

the source is C. Meissner’s Latin Phrase Book and the list appears on N.S. Gill’s Ancient History Blog here http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/deathafterlife/qt/LatinDeathe.htm

Main page  (“How to say someone kicked the bucket in Latin” is here : http://ancienthistory.about.com/b/2009/06/29/how-to-say-someone-kicked-the-bucket-in-latin.htm