Word of the day: i.e.
Ok this is funny. Don't you notice that a lot of people uses abbreviations and such and they actually do not know what it stands for? Well today I wanted to find out what i.e. means and it seemed that a lot of people are using it but don't really know what it means. Even my girlfriend, who is a real language geek, didn't know! I thought it was an English abbreviation, but I was wrong, it is a Latin phrase. We Dutchies use those a lot but we don't abbreviate everything, we use the full words like "Idem"
After doing some research and talking with John I now can tell you what it means: i.e. stands for "Id Est". It means "in other words". Read this article to get the full explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id_est#I
Comments
Anonymous
January 18, 2007
Strictly speaking of course it means "that is".Anonymous
January 18, 2007
I agree with you Kevin, but mainly it is used for "in other words" at least that's what I have seen when being here in the States now for a while.Anonymous
January 18, 2007
Another one i've always struggled with was "e.g." I always thought it meant "example given." Apparently, its latin, and is "exempli gratia" or "for the sake of example." I guess i was close enough.Anonymous
January 18, 2007
Well I knew both of these and there are some people I know, are aware as well. Another interesting one which we don't use so often but I like-Et al (et alii) used for 'and others'. Joe, Nikole et al..Anonymous
January 18, 2007
>> Apparently, its latin, and is "exempli gratia" or "for the sake of example." << I thought "exempli gratia" translated to "example for free".Anonymous
January 18, 2007
James, If you look at the wikipedia page it will say it means for the sake of example. I think you are right when you literal translate it though, but my Latin is a bit rusty ;)Anonymous
January 18, 2007
The comment has been removedAnonymous
January 18, 2007
Man why didnt I think of using Word 2007. Anybody using Word 2003 and see if it's inthere as well?