Latin Proverbs, Mottoes, Phrases, and Words: Group P

1. Things that exist and can be seen, felt, tasted, etc.; especially, things which are unusual or interesting: "Do you believe in the paranormal and other psychic phenomena?"
2. Any states or processes known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoning; such as, "remarkable developments".
3. In medicine: Symptoms; occurrences of any sort, whether ordinary or extraordinary, in relation to a disease.
4. Unusual facts or occurrences.

Phenomenon is the singular form even in English, while phenomena is the plural form. Phenomena should never be used with a singular verb.

1. An appearance; anything visible; whatever, in matter or spirit, is apparent to, or is apprehended by, observation; such as, the phenomenon of heat, light, or electricity; phenomenon of imagination or memory.
2. That which strikes one as strange, unusual, or unaccountable; such as, an extraordinary or very remarkable person, thing, or occurrence; as, a musical phenomenon.

Phenomenon is the singular form in Latin and in English. A singular verb should be used.

Doctor of Philosophy.

Philosophy in service to piety.

Motto of Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, USA.

With piety, justice, and moderation.

Motto of Friedrich IV, Count of the Palatinate (1594-1610).

With piety and justice.

Motto of August Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp (1646-1705).

Piety and justice are the supports of government.

Motto of Adolf Friedrich I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1588-1658).

Filial affection.

Motto of St. Edward's School, Oxford, U.K.

With piety, fidelity, and justice.

Motto of Wilhelm VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel (1629-1663).

By piety, by prudence and by justice.

Motto of Friedrich I, Duke of Saxony-Gotha and Altenburg (1646-1691).

1. "I shall please".
2. In medicine, a prescription given to please a patient who, in the physician's opinion, needs no medication.
3. something of no inherent benefit that is done, or said, simply to placate or to reassure someone.
4. Something prescribed for a patient that contains no medicine, but is given for the positive psychological effect it may have because the patient believes that he or she is receiving treatment.
5. A "sugar pill" or any dummy medication or treatment; for example, in a controlled clinical trial, one group may be given a real medication while another group is given a placebo that looks just like it in order to learn if the differences observed are due to the medication or to the power of mental suggestion.
6. Etymology: from Latin placebo, "I shall please"; future indicative of placere, "to please".

The medical sense is first recorded in about 1785, "a medicine given more to please than to benefit the patient".

The placebo effect and the power of belief

Michael Brooks, a writer of an article in New Scientist magazine, took part in a "placebo" experiment in which he was told that a computer screen would indicate whether electric shocks would be mild when a green light showed up or a red light would indicate when the shock would be "more severe".

After about fifteen minutes, the experiment ended with what he thought were a series of "mild shocks" until he was told that the "last series of shocks" were all severe. He "felt the electric fence jolts as a series of gentle taps" on his arm until he was told that the "last series of shocks were all severe".

He realized that he had experienced "the placebo effect" because his brain had been conditioned to anticipate low pain when he saw the green light on the computer screen for the series.

The "placebo effect" for quite awhile has been considered to be nothing more than the "power of positive thinking" and so people believed that they were receiving good medical care even though it might have been nothing more than a sugar pill or an encouraging manner of the physician. In many cases, people started to feel better without any additional medical treatment.

Some current research about the placebo effect indicates that it is more complicated than simply being a "positive thinking" result; however, depending on how it is done, the placebo effect can make some people feel better even when they are not really any better.

Editorial: "Patient, heal thyself"

• About the only medicine doctors from long ago could offer their patients was the reassurance that a medical treatment would work and it often was successful.
• It has become apparent that a patient's state of mind, awareness of his/her condition and expectations of the care she/he is about to receive can influence many outcomes of medicine from consultations with a doctor to clinical trials of a new drug.
• Apparently the usefulness of a drug, for example, depends on much more than the chemicals in a pill, and a deeper understanding of the placebo effect can turn it into a valuable tool for reducing suffering.

See nocebo for the antonym of placebo.

1. People, the common people, the masses, the lower classes or orders.
2. All of those Roman citizens who were not patricians (upper classes) were plebeians. By the time of Gaius Marius, c. 110 B.C., there were very few politically unimportant posts which remained as strictly the province of the patricians.
3. One of the ordinary citizens of ancient Rome as distinct from the patricians.
4. Someone who behaves in a coarse or crude manner, and has common or vulgar tastes; especially, someone from a lower social class.

Plebiscite is used to mean a vote by a whole electorate to decide a question of importance; a referendum; a public expression of the will or opinion of a whole community.

In history, a law enacted by the plebs or ordinary citizens of ancient Rome gathered in assembly. Also as an adjective: plebiscitary

More! Further!

Motto of German Emperor Charles V (1519-1556). It is also written as, Plus ultra and it is translated as, "Thus far and further".

More beyond.

Motto of Shepherd College, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA.

With thumb folded.

Interpreted to mean that if the spectators wanted a losing-gladiator to live, they kept their thumbs in their fists.