non possumus
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of non possumus
From Latin: literally, “we cannot”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Prague Government made representations to Budapest, but the Royal Hungarian Government assumed a non possumus attitude.
From Time Magazine Archive
The curt non possumus is usually the last resource of the diplomatist when argument has failed, and it very seldom makes for peace, as everybody knows.
From Delilah of the Snows by Bindloss, Harold
It was a curt and uncompromising non possumus, and Jefferson sighed.
From For Jacinta by Bindloss, Harold
He has no hatred of religion, as the atheistic radical bourgeois had, but with a good-natured "non possumus" says by his actions what Engels says by his philosophy.
From Landmarks of Scientific Socialism "Anti-Duehring" by Engels, Friedrich
But he wished to protect the weak against the strong, and what he hated beyond everything was the non possumus of any constituted authority.
From Character and Opinion in the United States by Santayana, George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
