[Editors] how's your Latin?

[Thalia Rubio]

Hi all

Did anyone take Latin in school? If so, I'd love to get your help with a
question about Latin grammar. Actually my (elderly) mom has the question and I
told her I'd see what I could do.

She's wondering what the grammar is for this phrase: pro re nata. That's the
Latin behind the term prn, used in the medical field to mean "as needed."

If you kind of squint and do your best guess, it looks like: "for (concerning?)
born." I googled for a Latin dictionary and it said: "For an occasion as it
arises" - which makes sense.

But does anyone know how the phrase is actually constructed, with declensions
and all? (What does "re" mean?)

Your help will be much appreciated by both of us. I can take my answer off the
air, as it were.

Thanks!

Thalia

Thalia Rubio, M.Ed.
Lecturer, Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, 12-111
Cambridge, MA 02139
Email: trubio at mit.edu