English → Latin
“tradition” in Latin
fāmafame; rumour, talk, opinion, report; reputationmemoriamemory; the ability to remember; a remembrance, a thing remembered; a time of remembrancefābuladiscourse, narrative; a fable, tale, story; a play
The English word tradition itself goes back to Latin dō, through trāditiō.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
tradition s.
Delivery of events to posterity by oral report, fama (the proper word, not to be used in the plur., in the sense of stories, accounts handed down). Circumlocution by the phrases posteris tradere or prodere aliquid; ad posteritatem propagare aliquid; memoriae prodere aliquid (to hand down by tradition). A thing has been handed down by tradition, sermone hominum posteritati res prodita, tradita est.
An account thus handed down, *narratio a parentibus tradita: *narratio ore propagata; memoria (☞ traditio is late in this sense). A mere tradition, fabula; res fabulosa; historia fabularis.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for tradition?
- The usual Latin words for “tradition” are fāma, memoria, fābula. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.