Three words this week, for the price of one. I find this term useful; though I don’t use it myself, I have seen it recently in long-form journalism. Wikipedia has an entire entry on it, so here are a few highlights. See that Wikipedia entry for its application in writing about medicine and the law.
Let’s get the definition out of the way: a mandatory precondition, an essential element, a key ingredient. The full Latin term is condicio sine qua non. So “today, a valid passport is a sine qua non of international travel,” or “to govern well at any level today, knowledge of macroeconomics appears to be a sine qua non for successful leadership.”
The origin is ancient, as we can tell from its Latin roots. That meaning, as given in Wikipedia “without which [there is] nothing,” appeared in the work of the early Christian philosopher Boethius. Earlier still, Aristotle used its Greek equivalent. For formal writing, I always like how a Latin phrase or Latinate word elevates the occasion, as does my taste for dress shirts and sometimes a tie when in the classroom.
What are some other expressions where our phrase might impress readers and make your prose more formal? We simply lack good alternatives in English. “Must have” sounds blunt to me.
Summer break is a sine qua non for most academics and their students. So are frequent posts in a successful blog.As Spring turns to Summer and students leave for break, I’ll still be posting here. Send metaphors and words to cover by e-mailing me (jessid -at- richmond -dot- edu) or leaving a comment below. Want to write a guest entry? Let me know!
See all of our Metaphors of the Month here and Words of the Week here.
Image of Boethius from Wikipedia.