Category
page 1Latin literary phrases
deus ex machina
plot device
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incipit
thumb|upright=1.2|Decorated incipit page to the Gospel of Matthew, 1120–1140
postscript
A postscript (P.S., PS., or PS) may be a sentence, a paragraph, or occasionally many paragraphs added, often hastily and incidentally, after the signature of a letter or (sometimes) the main body of an essay or book. For such longer works it may also be known as an afterword or subscription. The term comes from the Latin "post scriptum", an expression meaning "written after" (which may be interpreted in the sense of "that which comes after the writing").
in medias res
narrative that opens mid-plot, or 'in the middle of things'
nota bene
Italian and Latin phrase
ab ovo
adverb meaning "from the beginning"
ab initio
Latin term meaning "from the beginning"
Sutor, ne ultra crepidam
Latin expression
captatio benevolentiae
rhetorical technique
op. cit.
Latin abbreviation
dramatis personæ
Latin phrase
Nulla dies sine linea
no day without a single line
explicit
the last lines of a work
Homo unius libri
latin phrase meaning "man of one book"
lectio difficilior potior
principle of textual criticism
Manu propria
Latin expression meaning by one's own hand
loc. cit.
footnote or endnote term
non-sequitur
conversational literary device
lectio brevior
principle in textual criticism
Gradus ad Parnassum
latin phrase used figuratively to mean "gradual progress towards mastery"