Practice your Latin

Spoken Latin: What does “alicui os sublinere” mean?

This article has been reviewed in accordance with our editorial policy.

Who­ev­er reads Plau­tus’ plays will undoubt­ed­ly run into the fas­ci­nat­ing expres­sion alicui os sub­linere. It’s that typ­i­cal idiom where know­ing each word of the sen­tence does­n’t mean that you can actu­al­ly under­stand it. In this video, you’ll learn about this fun expression’s ori­gin, mean­ing, and use in the literature.

What to watch & read after­wards? Try this video about the life and works of Plautus.

Video in Latin

Latin audio only

If you just want to lis­ten to the audio, you can find it below, or sub­scribe to Latini­tium in your favourite pod­cast player.

Daniel Pettersson

Daniel Pettersson

Teacher and author Daniel Pettersson, M.A., is co-founder of Latinitium and is currently teaching Latin at Stockholm University, where he is also working on his Ph.D. dissertation on Humanist Colloquia. Daniel believes in the importance of Latin literature in the modern world and that you can teach yourself Latin with the right motivation, method, and material.
Written by Daniel Pettersson

Written by Daniel Pettersson

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