Hi! Welcome to “Dusty Phrases.” You will find below an ancient phrase in one language or another, along with its English translation. You may also find the power to inspire your friends or provoke dread among your enemies.
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Latin:
Dum spiro spero
English:
While I breathe, I hope
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This phrase is one of the state mottos of South Carolina (which explains the pervasive hopefulness throughout the state.) The phrase’s origin is unclear, though the Latin and Greek sentiment go back thousands of years.
(via wiki)
Dum spiro spero, which translates to “While I breathe, I hope“, is a Latin phrase of indeterminate origin. It is the motto of various places and organisations, including the U.S. state of South Carolina.
Derivation
The sense of dum spiro spero can be found in the work of Greek poet Theocritus (3rd Century BC), who wrote: “While there’s life there’s hope, and only the dead have none.” That sentiment seems to have become common by the time of Roman statesman Cicero (106 – 43 BC), who wrote to Atticus: “As in the case of a sick man one says, ‘While there is life there is hope’ [dum anima est, spes esse], so, as long as Pompey was in Italy, I did not cease to hope.”
Matthew Henry (1662–1714), commenting on Ecclesiastes 9:3–4, directly related and applied the term to biblical King Solomon’s ecclesiastical understanding of life as it relates to a supernatural afterlife. Henry use suggests that there is eternal hope of heaven while people are living, but this hope is lost once their breath is gone if they choose to live unrighteously (“While there is life there is hope. Dum spiro, spero – while I breathe, I hope.”). Henry’s application also implies that the phrase’s general idea predates Greek thought as it was first recorded in the 10th century BC in Masoretic texts.
The phrase is present in modern day in a representation of the seal of South Carolina printed in March 1785. At some point, it also became the motto of the town of St Andrews, Scotland, and is visible on heraldry around the town from the mid-19th century onwards.
Usage
As a motto
- Cothill House Preparatory School in Oxfordshire, England.
- The Czech Army‘s 601st Special Forces Group, based in Prostějov
- dispuut STROPDAS Archived 2021-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, part of Eindhovensche Studenten Roeivereniging Thêta (Student Rowing Club in Eindhoven, Netherlands)
- Fairfield College, a secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand
- Oliver Lodge Primary School in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
- The Principality of Hutt River
- The Raj of Sarawak.
- St Andrews, Fife
- The State of South Carolina
As an inscription
- on the wall of Edzell Castle, and spelled out by the shrubs in the castle’s walled garden
- on medallions marking the Barbary Coast Trail in San Francisco, California
- on a stained glass window of Beverly Unitarian Church in Chicago. Also in Chicago, it is inscribed above the doorway of 220 E. Walton Place.
As a title
- Japanese avant-garde metal band Dir En Grey named their eighth full-length album Dum Spiro Spero.
Family and individual use
Dum spiro spero is used as a motto by armigerous families including the Corbet baronets of Moreton Corbet (both creations), the Hoare baronets of Annabella, Co. Cork, the Cotter baronets of Rockforest, Co. Cork, and the Viscounts Dillon. The Sharp and Sharpe clans of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Royal military. The Williamson Clan from Scotland ; and the Scottish Clan MacLennan. Individuals who used the motto include Charles I, King of England; Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, and the merchant seaman and privateer, later Royal Governor of the Bahama Islands, Woodes Rogers.
Originally published May 16, 2022
Approved for all audiences
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