In vino veritas is a Latin phrase that means "in wine, truth", suggesting a person under the influence of alcohol is more likely to speak their hidden thoughts and desires. The phrase is sometimes continued as, "In vino veritas, in aqua sanitas", i.e., "In wine there is truth, in water there is health." Similar phrases exist across cultures and languages.
The expression, together with its counterpart in Greek, "?? ???? ???????" (En oin?i al?theia), is found in Erasmus' Adagia, I.vii.17. Pliny the Elder's Naturalis historia contains an early allusion to the phrase. The Greek expression is traced back to a poem by Alcaeus.
Herodotus asserts that if the Persians decided something while drunk, they made a rule to reconsider it when sober. Authors after Herodotus have added that if the Persians made a decision while sober, they made a rule to reconsider it when they were drunk (Histories, book 1, section 133). The Roman historian Tacitus described how the Germanic peoples kept council at feasts, where they believed that drunkenness prevented the participants from dissembling.
Video In vino veritas
Western Europe
In Western European countries the expression has been incorporated in local language versions.
- In Dutch, "De wijn in het lijf, het hart in de mond. Een dronken mond spreekt 's harten grond" ("Wine in the body, heart in the mouth. A drunken mouth speaks the heart's meaning").
- In English, "What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals." and "He speaks in his drink what he thought in his drouth". and "A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts".
- In French, "Ce que le sobre tient au coeur est sur la langue du buveur." ("What the sober hold in their heart is on the drinker's tongue").
- In German, "Trunkner Mund verrät des Herzens Grund" ("A drunken mouth betrays the heart's meaning") and "Trunkener Mund tut Wahrheit kund" ("A drunken mouth does a favor to the truth").
- In Spanish, "Despues de beber cada uno dice su parecer" ("After drinking everyone speaks their opinion") and "Cuando el vino entra el secreto se sale afuera" ("When the wine enters, the secret comes out"). and "Los niños y los borrachos dicen la verdad" ("Children and drunks tell the truth").
Maps In vino veritas
Central Europe
- Hungarian: Borban az igazság
Russian
In Russian, «??? ? ???????? ?? ???, ?? ? ??????? ?? ?????» ("What a sober man has in his mind, the drunk one has on his tongue") and «?????? ? ????».
Talmud
The Babylonian Talmud (????? ????) contains the passage: "???? ??? ??? ???", i.e., "Wine enters, secret goes out." It continues, "????? ????? ??? ???? ????? ?????? ??????", i.e., "In three things is a man revealed: in his wine goblet, in his purse, and in his wrath." (In the original Hebrew, the words for "his goblet" (koso), "his purse" (keeso - lit. his pocket), and "his wrath" (ka'aso) rhyme, and there is a further play on words, as they all use the root "??".)
there is a similar saying in yiddish: "???? ??? ? ??????? ???? ?? ????, ??? ??? ? ?????'? ???? ?? ????", literal meaning: what a sober one has on its lung a drunken has on its tongue.
Persian
In Persian, ???? ? ????? ("With drunkenness comes the truth").
Chinese
In Chinese, ????? ("After wine blurts truthful speech").
Chichewa
In Chichewa, Phika mowa unve chinapha amako ("Brew beer and you will hear what killed your mother").
In Chibemba, Ubwalwa nisokolola twebo (" beer makes one reveal secrets").
Music
In the 1770s, Benjamin Cooke wrote a glee by the title of In Vino Veritas. His lyrics (with modern punctuation):
- Round, round with the glass, boys, as fast as you can,
- Since he who don't drink cannot be a true man.
- For if truth is in wine, then 'tis all but a whim
- To think a man's true when the wine's not in him.
- Drink, drink, then, and hold it a maxim divine
- That there's virtue in truth, and there's truth in good wine!
See also
- List of Latin phrases
- Truth serum
References
External links
- Media related to In vino veritas at Wikimedia Commons
Source of article : Wikipedia
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