Unlatinate

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Which does not (or seems not to) follow the Latin language's grammatical rules correctly.

    "Ingemuitque aedificavitque aras in monte Chelion... (Prinz, p.139) The very unlatinate use of double -que could well reflect an attempt to imitate the Greek connective particles τε. . . τε."

  2. 2
    Ignorant of the Latin language. derogatory

    "And had we but known it, the 1960s were just round the corner with their real reach-out-by-translation committees to intelligibly plain speech in half as many syllables, whether in the New English Bible's: 'The earlier rules are cancelled as impotent and useless' or the Good News Bible's firmly unlatinate: 'The old rule then is set aside, because it was weak and useless.'"

Example

More examples

"Ingemuitque aedificavitque aras in monte Chelion... (Prinz, p.139) The very unlatinate use of double -que could well reflect an attempt to imitate the Greek connective particles τε. . . τε."

Etymology

From un- + Latinate.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.