| Latin | Translation | Notes | - | - |
| ' | That's shat, not painted. | From Gottfried August Bürger's Prinzessin Europa ; popularised by Heinrich Heine's Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen ; also the title of Joseph Haydn's canon for four voices, Hob. XXVIIb:16; Ludwig van Beethoven set the text by Bürger as a three-voice canon, WoO 224. Contemporary critics applied this epithet to both of Turner's Regulus. | - | - |
| ' | insatiable desire to write | Cacoēthes "bad habit", or medically, "malignant disease" is a borrowing of Greek kakoēthes. The phrase is derived from a line in the Satires of Juvenal: Tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes, or "the incurable desire for writing affects many". See hypergraphia. | - | - |
| ' | truly countless bodies | Used by the Romans to describe the aftermath of the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. | - | - |
| Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. | Kill them all. For the Lord knows those who are his. | Supposed statement by Abbot Arnaud Amalric before the Massacre at Béziers during the Albigensian Crusade, recorded 30 years later, according to Caesarius of Heisterbach. cf. "Kill them all and let God sort them out." | - | - |
| ' | Those who hurry across the sea change the sky , not their souls or state of mind | Hexameter by Horace. Seneca shortens it to Animum debes mutare, non caelum in his Letter to Lucilius XXVIII, 1. | - | - |
| ' | Caesar has no authority over the grammarians | Political power is limited; it does not include power over grammar. | - | - |
| ' | the rest is missing | Caetera is Medieval Latin spelling for cētera. | - | - |
| ' | my cup making me drunk | | - | - |
| ' | The pen is mightier than the sword | | - | - |
| camera obscura | dark chamber | An optical device used in drawing, and an ancestor of modern photography. The source of the word camera. | - | - |
| Cane Nero magna bella Persica | Tell, oh Nero, of the great wars of Persia | Perfectly correct Latin sentence usually reported as funny from modern Italians because the same exact words, in today's dialect of Rome, mean "A black dog eats a beautiful peach", which has a ridiculously different meaning. | - | - |
| canes pugnaces | war dogs or fighting dogs | | - | - |
| canescunt vani, vanescunt cani | The vain turn grey, the grey vanish | A play on words. | - | - |
| ' | dog eats dog | Not from classical Latin; a situation where nobody is safe from anybody, each man for himself. Original name of the video game Bully. | - | - |
| ' | capable of receiving God | From Augustine, De Trinitate XIV, 8.11: Mens eo ipso imago Dei est quo eius capax est, "The mind is the image of God, in that it is capable of Him and can be partaker of Him." | - | - |
| capax imperii nisi imperasset | capable of imperial power if only he had not held it | In Tacitus's Histories to describe Galba as emperor. | - | - |
| capax infiniti | holding the infinite | Capability of achieving goals by force of many instead of a single individual. | - | - |
| caput inter nubila | head in the clouds | So aggrandized as to be beyond practical reach or understanding | - | - |
| caput mortuum | dead head | Originally an alchemical reference to the dead head or worthless residue left over from a reaction. Also used to refer to a freeloader or worthless element. | - | - |
| Caritas Christi | The love of Christ | It implies a command to love as Christ loved. Motto of St. Francis Xavier High School located in West Meadowlark Park, Edmonton. | - | - |
| Caritas Christi urget nos | The love of Christ impels us or The love of Christ drives us | The motto of the Sisters of Charity. | - | - |
| Caritas in veritate | Charity in truth | Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical | - | - |
| carpe diem | seize the day | An exhortation to live for today. From Horace, Odes I, 11.8. Carpere refers to plucking of flowers or fruit. The phrase collige virgo rosas has a similar sense. | - | - |
| carpe noctem | seize the night | An exhortation to make good use of the night, often used when carpe diem, q.v., would seem absurd, e.g., when observing a deep-sky object or conducting a Messier marathon or engaging in social activities after sunset. | - | - |
| carpe vinum | seize the wine | | - | - |
| Carthago delenda est | Carthage must be destroyed | The Roman senator Cato the Elder ended every speech after the Second Punic War with ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam, literally "For the rest, I am of the opinion that Carthage is to be destroyed." | - | - |
| castigat ridendo mores | One corrects customs by laughing at them | Or, " criticises customs through humour", is a phrase coined by French Neo-Latin poet Jean-Baptiste de Santeul, but sometimes wrongly attributed to his contemporary Molière or to Roman lyric poet Horace. | - | - |
| Casum sentit dominus | accident is felt by the owner | Refers to the private law principle that the owner has to assume the risk of accidental harm to him or accidental loss to his property. | - | - |
| casus belli | event of war | Refers to an incident that is the justification or case for war. | - | - |
| causa latet, vis est notissima | The cause is hidden, but the result is well known. | Ovid: Metamorphoses IV, 287; motto of Alpha Sigma Phi. | - | - |
| causa mortis | cause of death | | - | - |
| cave | beware! | especially used by Doctors of Medicine, when they want to warn each other. Spoken aloud in some British public schools by pupils to warn each other of impending authority. | - | - |
| cave canem | Beware of the dog | Earliest written example is in the Satyricon of Petronius, circa 1st century C.E. | - | - |
| caveat emptor | let the buyer beware | The purchaser is responsible for checking whether the goods suit his need. Phrases modeled on this one replace emptor with lector, subscriptor, venditor, utilitor: "reader", "signer", "seller", "user". | - | - |
| caveat venditor | let the seller beware | It is a counter to caveat emptor and suggests that sellers can also be deceived in a market transaction. This forces the seller to take responsibility for the product and discourages sellers from selling products of unreasonable quality. | - | - |
| cedant arma togae | let arms yield to the gown | "Let military power yield to civilian power", Cicero, De Officiis I:77. Former motto of the Territory of Wyoming. See also Toga#Roman military. | - | - |
| cedere nescio | I know not how to yield | Motto of HMAS Norman | - | - |
| Celer – Silens – Mortalis | Swift – Silent – Deadly | The motto of the force reconnaissance companies of the United States Marine Corps, also known as force recon. | - | - |
| celerius quam asparagi cocuntur | more swiftly than asparagus s are cooked | Or simply "faster than cooking asparagus". A variant of the Roman phrase velocius quam asparagi coquantur, using a different adverb and an alternative mood and spelling of coquere. | - | - |
| cepi corpus | I have taken the body | In law, it is a return made by the sheriff, upon a capias, or other process to the like purpose; signifying, that he has taken the body of the party. See also habeas corpus. | - | - |
| certiorari | to be made certain | From certiorari volumus, "we wish to be made certain." A prerogative writ, by which a superior court orders an inferior one to turn over its record for review. Now used, depending on the jurisdiction, for an order granting leave to appeal a decision or judicial review of a lower court's order. | - | - |
| certum est quod certum reddi potest | it is certain, whatever can be rendered certain | Or "... if it can be rendered certain." Often used in law when something is not known, but can be ascertained | - | - |
| cessante ratione legis cessat ipsa lex | when the reason for the law ceases, the law itself ceases | A rule of law becomes ineffective when the reason for its application has ceased to exist or does not correspond to the reality anymore. By Gratian. | - | - |
| cetera desunt | the rest are missing | Also spelled "caetera desunt". | - | - |
| ceteris paribus | all other things being equal | That is, disregarding or eliminating extraneous factors in a situation. | - | - |
| charta pardonationis se defendendo | a paper of pardon to defend oneself | The form of a pardon for killing another man in self-defence. | - | - |
| charta pardonationis utlagariae | a paper of pardon to the outlaw | The form of a pardon of a man who is outlawed. Also called perdonatio utlagariae. | - | - |
| Christianos ad leones | Christians to the lions! | | - | - |
| Christo et Doctrinae | For Christ and Learning | The motto of Furman University. | - | - |
| Christus nos liberavit | Christ has freed us | title of volume I, book 5, chapter XI of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. | - | - |
| Christus Rex | Christ the King | A Christian title for Jesus. | - | - |
| Cicero dicit fac hoc | Cicero says do it | Said by some to be the origin of the game command and title Simon says. | - | - |
| ' | Cicero's speech in 57 BC to regain his confiscated house | Said of someone who pleads cases for their own benefit; see | - | - |
| circa or ' | around | In the sense of "approximately" or "about". Usually used of a date. | - | - |
| circulus in probando | circle made in testing | Circular reasoning. Similar term to circulus vitiosus. | - | - |
| circulus vitiosus | vicious circle | In logic, begging the question, a fallacy involving the presupposition of a proposition in one of the premises. In science, a positive feedback loop. In economics, a counterpart to the virtuous circle. | - | - |
| citius altius fortius | faster, higher, stronger | Motto of the modern Olympics. | - | - |
| civis romanus sum | I am Roman citizen | Is a phrase used in Cicero's In Verrem as a plea for the legal rights of a Roman citizen | - | - |
| ' | a claim to be admitted to the eyre by an attorney | A writ whereby the king of England could command the justice of an eyre to permit an attorney to represent a person who is employed in the king's service and therefore cannot come in person. | - | - |
| ' | bright, daring, joyful | Motto of the Geal family | - | - |
| ' | he broke the enclosure | A legal action for trespass to land; so called because the writ demands the person summoned to answer wherefore he broke the close ', i.e., why he entered the plaintiff's land. | - | - |
| ' | the keys of Saint Peter | A symbol of the Papacy. | - | - |
| ' | golden key | The means of discovering hidden or mysterious meanings in texts, particularly applied in theology and alchemy. | - | - |
| ' | for being made a clerk | In law, a writ directed to the bishop, for the admitting a clerk to a benefice upon a ne admittas, tried, and found for the party who procures the writ. | - | - |
| ' | | In law, a writ for the delivery of a clerk out of prison, who is imprisoned upon the breach of statute merchant. | - | - |
| ' | | In law, a writ for the delivery of a clerk to his ordinary, that was formerly convicted of felony; by reason that his ordinary did not challenge him according to the privilege of clerks. | - | - |
| ' | | In law, a writ directed to the bailiffs, etc., that have thrust a bailiwick or beadleship upon one in holy orders; charging them to release him. | - | - |
| Book of Canon Law | The official code of canon law in the Roman Catholic Church. | - | - |
| Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur | No one suffers punishment for mere intent. | No one can be punished for their thoughts. | - | - |
| cogito, ergo sum | I think, therefore I am. | A rationalistic argument used by French philosopher René Descartes to attempt to prove his own existence. | - | - |
| coitus interruptus | interrupted congress | Aborting sexual intercourse prior to ejaculation—the only permitted form of birth control in some religions. | - | - |
| coitus more ferarum | congress in the way of beasts | A medical euphemism for the doggy-style sexual position. | - | - |
| collige virgo rosas | pick, girl, the roses | Exhortation to enjoy fully the youth, similar to Carpe diem, from "De rosis nascentibus", attributed to Ausonius or Virgil. | | "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may", 1909, by John William Waterhouse |