Latin was originally spoken 3,000 years ago by small groups of people living along the lower Tiber River in present-day Italy. During the height of the Roman Empire, the language exploded across the European continent and the western Mediterranean coastal regions of Africa.

Today, Latin has a reputation of being a “dead language,” but that descriptor isn’t entirely accurate. It provides the building blocks for all of the Romance languages, and many words and expressions in contemporary English are borrowed straight from Latin. Take the informal motto of the United States: E Pluribus Unum is Latin for “oOut of many, one.” Here’s a list of common expressions, words, and mottos for major institutions that owe their origin to this so-called dead language.

This quote, meaning “I came, I saw, I conquered,” is famously attributed to Julius Caesar, sent in a message to the Roman Senate to describe his victory against King Pharnaces II of Pontus in 47 BCE. The classical historian Plutarch praised the brevity and poetry of Caesar’s words, likely contributing factors as to why the phrase has been preserved for so long. In more modern decades, a song in the 1950s Broadway hit Auntie Mame includes the line “You came, you saw, you conquered,” and the rock band the Hives named a 2002 album “Veni Vidi Vicious.”

This Latin expression, meaning “the existing state (of affairs),” is used mainly in the context of social or political issues, but it can refer to an unaltered condition of any kind. “Status quo” has been in contemporary English usage since 1833, so it’s quite far from dead.

While this isn’t a phrase you’ll hear every day, alums of the University of Chicago hold it close to heart. The motto means “let knowledge grow from more to more; and so be human life enriched.” Many universities and learning institutions have Latin mottos because the language was once used for formal education around the time theymany famous universities were founded, and the traditions persisted.

It makes sense that Clark Kent (aka Superman) was raised in Kansas. The state motto, translated from Latin, means “to the stars through difficulties.” About half of the 50 states have Latin mottos.

Carpe diem, one of the most widely used contemporary Latin phrases, translates to “seize the day,” but the interpretation of it is generally “live each day as if it’s your last.” The Latin phrase first appeared in the Roman poet Horace’s work Odes (23 BCE). Carpe is a form of the infinitive verb carpō, meaning “pick or pluck,” so a more literal translation would be “pluck the day.”

This phrase, attributed to the Roman philosopher and writer Pliny the Elder, means “in wine, there is truth.” Pliny may have had weightier topics in mind, but the Latin phrase is still applicable as long as people continue to let secrets slip out after a few glasses of happy-hour wine.

Persona non grata literally translates to “person not welcome.” It was originally used in the context of diplomacy, such as when a foreign diplomat was asked by a host country to be recalled to their home country. Today, it’s used in more personal situations — e.g., an ex-husband may be persona non grata in your friend group.

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Unlike Veni, vidi, vici, these words were never actually said by the real-life Julius Caesar. Instead, the Shakespearean character of Julius Caesar says them in the eponymous play when he recognizes that his friend Marcus Junius Brutus played a role in his assassination. These days, the expression, which translates as “you too, Brutus?” might be used humorously to criticize a friend’s change of heart.

Tank tops are sleeveless garments that can be worn on a hot day, serve as an undershirt, or form the basis for an excellent John McClane cosplay costume. These multifunctional shirts are a relatively recent invention, first appearing in closets around the 1920s and exploding in popularity in the 1950s, thanks to a Hollywood boost. The name “tank top” itself wasn’t used until the late 1940s, in relation to a similar-looking piece of swimwear called the “tank suit.”

In the 19th century, women wore full-length bathing dresses, complete with layers of  undergarments, to preserve their modesty. In the early 20th century, bathing suits underwent a revolution and became more tight fitting, even revealing the legs. By the 1910s, a one-piece, sleeveless, fitted bathing suit with legs was popular with both men and women for its ease of motion in the water. These came to be called “tank suits” as pools were colloquially called “tanks” in the U.K.

Hanes takes credit for the jump to undershirt territory. According to Jamie Wallis, former director of global communications at Hanes, in 1928 the company began selling the sleeveless shirts along with its woven shirts as a measure to preserve the longevity of the more formal collared garments.  In the following decades, this garment came to be known as a “tank top,” taking its name from the similar-looking tank suits. Though it’s hard to say exactly when “tank top” was first coined for the undergarment, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that an early mention appeared in a 1949 edition of Women’s Wear Daily.

Once a simple undershirt, the ribbed tank top achieved cultural monument status in the second half of the 20th century, beginning with Marlon Brando’s wardrobe in the 1951 movie A Streetcar Named Desire. The white tank top worn as outerwear became a shorthand for male virility, as seen again with Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and Vin Diesel in the Fast and Furious franchise. In the 1970s, Hanes nicknamed it the “A-shirt,” or athletic shirt, in order to move it away from undergarment territory.

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Around the turn of the century, the tank top acquired a distasteful nickname related to domestic abuse, but the kids might be all right, because the newest slang term for these tops is “pleasers,” as in “wife pleasers.” Tank tops remain a staple of street fashion, and they’re not leaving underwear drawers anytime soon, but they might continue to acquire new nicknames.

Squirting toothpaste onto a toothbrush is so second nature that it’s unlikely you’ve put much thought into the words behind it, but we’re here to tell you that there’s a word for almost everything. That little wavy blob of toothpaste is officially called a “nurdle.” While the word seems like it could come from either a nursery-school rhyme or a sci-fi saga, it’s no joke. In fact, it was once at the center of a courtroom dispute between toothpaste manufacturers — high drama indeed. 

The origins of “nurdle” didn’t begin in the dentist’s office. In the 1960s, “nurdling” was a spoof pub game invented by absurdist British comedian Michael Bentine, and in the sport of cricket, “nurdle” applies when someone scores a run by gently nudging the ball to a vacant area of the field. A more modern definition for “nurdle” is that of a small pellet of plastic used to manufacture larger plastic products. This definition is probably most closely related to toothpaste usage, as it refers to a small portion of something.

But as we transition to dental care, it gets a bit murky. “Nurdle” is a nonsense term without a clear etymological origin. It’s been proposed as a spelling variant of “nodule,” which is a “small rounded lump.” This can give us a loose connection to “nurdle” as a small lump of toothpaste, but it’s still just conjecture.

Perhaps the earliest known printed instance of “nurdle” as toothpaste was in a 1968 advertisement for the now-defunct brand Vote. The ad included the tagline, “A nurdle a day keeps the dragon away” (with “dragon” implying “bad breath”). Decades later, in the 1990s, the American Dental Association adopted “nurdle” in its literature to explain the proper amount of toothpaste to put on a brush. The ADA likely brought “nurdle” to the forefront of the dental industry; however, we know the organization didn’t coin the word, as it appeared in ads decades earlier.  

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But the word might never have been brought to public attention if it weren’t for a courtroom battle between two major toothpaste manufacturers: Colgate-Palmolive Co. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC (which produces Aquafresh). They were fighting not over the word “nurdle,” but over the right to use an image of the wavy blob with tricolored toothpaste and either the words “Triple Action” (Colgate) or “Triple Protection” (Glaxo). Advertisements are worth big bucks, and the companies reached a confidential settlement over the nurdle imagery in 2011.