Wednesday, July 13, 2011
What does E Pluribus Unum mean to you?
E pluribus unum , Latin for "from many, one", is a dictum on the Seal of the United States, along with Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum, and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782.[1] The phrase is similar to a Latin translation of a variation of Heraclitus' 10th fragment, "Out of all things one, one out of all things." A variant of the phrase was used in Moretum, a poem attributed to Virgil but with the actual author unknown. In the poem text, color est e pluribus unus describes the blending of colors into one. St Augustine used a variant of the phrase, ex pluribus unum, in his Confessions. At the time of the American Revolution, the exact phrase appeared prominently on the title page of a popular periodical, The Gentleman's Magazine,[2][3][4] which collected articles from many sources into one "magazine". The motto was suggested in 1776 to the committee responsible for the developing the seal by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere.
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