Salvete Omnes,

With the upcoming Avenger’s End Game upon us, I thought it was appropriate to look at this ever popular world and how Latin or Ancient Rome has impacted it.

1. Excelsior
   1. MARVEL UNIVERSE: Stan Lee’s motto which he tweeted that it meant for him: “Finally, what does “Excelsior” mean? “Upward and onward to greater glory!” That’s what I wish you whenever I finish tweeting! Excelsior!”
   2. LATIN BACKGROUND: coming from the verb “excello” meaning “to raise up, to elevate, to surpass, etc.”
2. Adamantium
   1. MARVEL UNIVERSE: “an artificially-created alloy of iron that is the most impervious substance known on Earth.”
   2. LATIN BACKGROUND: Adamant is used to refer to usually a hard substance. Adamantite and adamantium (a metallic name derived from the Neo-Latin ending -ium) are also common variants. Adamantinus has, throughout ancient history, referred to things that are “extremely hard, inflexible, invincible.“ Virgil describes Tartarus as having a screeching gate protected by columns of solid adamantine (Aeneid book VI)
3. Vibranium
   1. MARVEL UNIVERSE: “Vibranium is named for its ability to absorb “vibratory energy,” or soundwaves.“Much like the material that makes up Wolverine’s claws, adamantium, Captain America‘s shield is made of a fictional metal called ‘vibranium.’ In the comics world, vibranium is only found in the African nation of Wakanda, where the Cap’s Avengers teammate Black Panther hails from.”  (Rick Marshall, “‘Captain America: The First Avenger’: Five things that were missing from the superhero movie,” IFC, July 25, 2011)
   2. LATIN BACKGROUND: Finding its root in the verb “vibro“ meaning “to set in tremulous motion, to move rapidly to and fro, to brandish, shake, agitate, to throw with a vibratory motion, to launch, hurl,To glimmer, glitter, gleam, scintillate;” it is clear that this verb does a great job in describing such a type of metal as many Captain America and Black Panther fans will know.
4. Spidey – Sense
   1. MARVEL UNIVERSE: ““Spider-Man, you will recall, has a ‘spidey-sense’, which alerts him to impending disaster and gives him time to react suitably.” (Giles Coren, “I had my Spider-Man moment. And I failed,” The Times, May 29, 2010). Spidey-sense refers to Spider-Man’s ability to sense danger before it happens. It “manifests in a tingling feeling at the base of his skull, alerting him to personal danger in proportion to the severity of that danger.” Spidey-sense also refers to intuition or instinct in general.
   2. LATIN BACKGROUND: For of all, spidey-sense is a real thing “All spiders have unique mechanoreceptory organs called slit sensilla, which allow them to sense minute mechanical strains on their exoskeleton.” The term mechanoreceptory comes from mechano (a Greek root)- + receptor.  Receptor  in Latin can either come from the noun receptor meaning “A receiver, shelterer” or from the verb recepto meaning “to take again, receive back; to recover, retake, to receive habitually or often, admit, harbor, protect.“
5. LATIN LANGUAGE
   1. MARVEL UNIVERSE: Beast, from X-men, is fluent in several languages including English, German, French, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, and Russian as well as Latverian. In Iron Man 2, Tony Stark and Pepper  Potts have a conversation about Natalie’s resume: [looking through Natalie’s resume] Tony Stark: She’s fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin. Who speaks Latin? Pepper Potts: No one speaks Latin. It’s a dead language.
   2. LATIN BACKGROUND: the Latin Language continues to be used today by students, religious factors, and Latin enthusiasts. Almost on a daily basis, there is a new article of how Latin has allowed people of all ages to thrive, learn, express themselves and overall better their lives.

Well,  I do hope this post was informative and enjoyable in getting ready for the big weekend!