O CIBILE, SI ERGO
From a big fan and long-time listener… Sarah Aubry… of parts unknown…
I’m a graphic designer who has been using Greek text, aka Lorem Ipsum, for many years. I was amazed to hear your judge accept “gibberish” for the answer to the question about the meaning of Lorem Ipsum. From http://www.lipsum.com: “Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old…Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance.”
Ms. Aubry clearly has a weak understanding of this matter. The Lorem Ipsum is not “Greek text.” In fact, her own source refutes this. It is Latin, which is a wholly different language and uses a wholly different alphabet. Furthermore, the standard Lorem Ipsum text–while it has its roots in a classic Latin text–is not real Latin. It is gibberish Latin. It was constructed from “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” by removing random syllables from the text to create gibberish. For example, the original text did not say “lorem ipsum,” but rather “dolorem ipsum.” “Dolorem” means pain, while “lorem” is gibberish.
While the text is Latin, the process of putting in substitute text is called greeking. (Lower-case G.) You’re both right. 🙂