Template:Random Latin fact/nobiscum

From Acadēmīa Latīnitātis
File:Bust of Cicero (1st-cent. BC) - Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016.jpg
Marcus Tullius Cicerō

The Roman statesman Cicero had a folk etymological explanation for why we say nōbīscum and not cum nōbīs.

Why don't we say cum nōbīs, but rather nōbīscum? Because: If we say it the other way, the letters would run together in a rather obscene way.
—Marcus Tullius Cicerō, § 154 Ōrātor ad Brūtum

The joke is: cum nōbīs can easily be misunderstood as cunnō bīs which has a lewd meaning, that we are not going to explain here.