Meaning
Seize the day: make the most of the present moment rather than trusting in or deferring to tomorrow. Used as an exclamation, a motto, or a modifier ('a carpe diem attitude'). The popular English rendering 'seize' is looser than the Latin, which literally meant 'pluck' the day, as one plucks ripe fruit, an image of gathering enjoyment while it lasts rather than conquering anything. Learned but widely understood; can sound inspirational or, with overuse, shopworn and clichéd. Regional use: General English (borrowed from Latin).
Origin
The words come from the Roman poet Horace (65-8 BCE), Odes Book I, poem 11, published in 23 BCE, in the line 'carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero,' roughly 'pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in tomorrow.' Carpe is the imperative of carpere, 'to pluck or pick,' and diem is the accusative of dies, 'day.' English writers took up the phrase in the early nineteenth century, with Dictionary.com dating first use to 1815-20 and The Phrase Finder crediting Lord Byron with an early integration in an 1817 letter: 'I never anticipate - carpe diem.' In modern English the sense has drifted from Horace's measured Epicurean caution about the uncertainty of tomorrow toward a general, sometimes commercialized call to bold enjoyment and spontaneous experience.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- seize the day
Usage Examples
- Given a free afternoon in the city, she chose carpe diem and bought a theater ticket.
- His graduation speech leaned on carpe diem themes about time and unlived plans.
- Carpe diem, the coach said, because nobody remembers the game you almost played.