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Aug 15, 2012
This week's theme
Latin terms in English

This week's words
corpus delicti
ex officio
ne plus ultra
ex post facto
cui bono

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

ne plus ultra

PRONUNCIATION:
(NE ploos OOL-trah, NEE/NAY pluhs uhl-truh)

MEANING:
noun: The ultimate or the perfect example of something.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin, literally, not further beyond. Earliest documented use: 1637.

NOTES:
It's said that the Pillars of Hercules at the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar had this Latin phrase inscribed. It served as a warning to sailors not to go beyond the limit of the known world. The national motto of Spain, on the other hand, is "Plus ultra".

USAGE:
"The greatest car in the world, the automotive ne plus ultra."
Jonathan Carroll; The Ghost in Love; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2008.

See more usage examples of ne plus ultra in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you. -Annie Dillard, author (b. 1945)

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