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.
To rousing applause Citizen Smith was saluted by a class orator: "Te quoque, Alfrede praestantissime, felix ille miles, quamquam carmina de viis Novi Eboraci cantare non possumus . . . hand minus iuvat salutare."
From Time Magazine Archive
The Prague Government made representations to Budapest, but the Royal Hungarian Government assumed a non possumus attitude.
From Time Magazine Archive
Avarescu's standpoint was that the cession of the Dobrudsha was an impossibility, and the interview ended with a non possumus from the Roumanian general, which was equivalent to breaking off negotiations.
From In the World War by Czernin von und zu Chudenitz, Ottokar Theobald Otto Maria, Graf
"Probationes existentiae Dei reduci ad quandam fidem, aut fundari in hac fide, qua non tam videmus quam credimus, seu naturaliter persuasum nobis est, ideam hanc esse fidelem, id quod evidentia mere interna cernere non possumus".
From The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, April 1865 by Various
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.
