They’re talking about the literal translation, not the conceptual translation. They’re also a little off.
Gratia literally translates to “grace”. Exempli gratia, with exempli used in the genetive case, directly translates to “graced examples”. More appropriate English would say “for the grace of examples”, and a better, localized translation would say “for the sake of example”. It’s commonly translated to “for example” since that would be the most common phrase to communicate the concept in English.
All these years later and college Latin finally was useful.
Sorry to be that guy, but acksherly in this case gratiā is ablative, not the nominative that you’re trying to force it into. So it means ‘by grace’ (or ‘by way’). And then, as you say, exempli is genitive. Therefore the two-word phrase can literally be translated ‘by way of an example’.
E.g. and i.e. are common. Other examples of latin used in English writing include scil., short for scilicet, or viz., for videlicet, both in English meaning ‘namely’ or ‘to wit’; and sic, which means ‘thus’, used to indicate that any perceived error is in the source material that you’re quoting. That latter is often wielded as quite the slap down!
They’re talking about the literal translation, not the conceptual translation. They’re also a little off.
Gratia literally translates to “grace”. Exempli gratia, with exempli used in the genetive case, directly translates to “graced examples”. More appropriate English would say “for the grace of examples”, and a better, localized translation would say “for the sake of example”. It’s commonly translated to “for example” since that would be the most common phrase to communicate the concept in English.
All these years later and college Latin finally was useful.
Sorry to be that guy, but acksherly in this case gratiā is ablative, not the nominative that you’re trying to force it into. So it means ‘by grace’ (or ‘by way’). And then, as you say, exempli is genitive. Therefore the two-word phrase can literally be translated ‘by way of an example’.
E.g. and i.e. are common. Other examples of latin used in English writing include scil., short for scilicet, or viz., for videlicet, both in English meaning ‘namely’ or ‘to wit’; and sic, which means ‘thus’, used to indicate that any perceived error is in the source material that you’re quoting. That latter is often wielded as quite the slap down!