Nonsense Language or Not?

The truth about Lorem Ipsum.

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The truth about Lorem Ipsum.

Chunks of gibberish or hidden meaning? That's the puzzle concerning the popular dummy text known as Lorem Ipsum. While the text itself means absolutely nothing, there is a noteworthy history behind the text designed to be unnoticed.

 

Lorem Ipsum appears to be in Latin, however the text has no literal translation to any Latin words; that is, except for one word. Professor of Latin at Hamden-Sydney College Richard McClintock noticed one word in a random block of Lorem Ipsum that seemed oddly familiar. Sure enough the word "consectetur" led McClintock down the path of Lorem Ipsum's origins. McClintock uncovered a connection between Lorem Ipsum as we know it and The Extremes of Good and Evil, an early work of Cicero's written in 45 BCE, over 2000 years ago. 

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Cicero's piece was then scrambled in the 15th century by a typesetter showcasing mockups of differing fonts. Today, Cicero's words are jumbled and randomly strewn together to appear like a natural block of text. The purpose of Lorem Ipsum has stayed the same for centuries: to avoid detracting from key design elements. 

So, next time you stumble across Lorem Ipsum on a website in its early stages, think of the history embedded in each seemingly random word and how you could uncover the next great literary secret with courses in Unmudl.

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