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Proverb: In vino veritas
For all the wine lovers out there in cyberspace, I have some Latin for you – in vino veritas.
It’s nice to throw out a Latin word or phrase now and then, especially if you can do it in the right situation.
However, we have to be careful when using Latin.
Get the timing right, and you sound like a sophisticated intellectual.
Get it wrong, and you’re stuck up.
My students and those of you who read my posts know that I like to drop a bit of Latin now and then.
I can assure you that I’m neither a sophisticated intellectual nor stuck-up.
I’m an English teacher; that should explain everything.
Anyway, in vino veritas can be translated as ‘in wine truth.’
The full proverb is in vino veritas, in aqua sanitas or ‘in wine truth, in water health.’
Nothing helps to loosen someone’s lips as much as alcohol.
After a few drinks, most people will tell you not only all their secrets and the secrets of their family but also every secret they have ever known, including the combination of the bicycle lock they had when they were 12 years old.
Yes, for thousands of years, wine has been the way to truth.
I wonder if that’s why entertaining a business contact by taking them out for dinner and a few drinks is standard practice here in Japan.
They say that the best business deals are made over a glass of sake, wine, scotch, rum or whatever your poison of choice may be.
Remember in vino veritas when you need to know the truth.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 72.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.