Gaudeamus igitur

Gaudeamus igitur (gaudeamus rhymes with 'rowdy harm us', IPA: /ˌgaʊd ɪ (or ə) ˈɑː mʊs/), meaning ‘So let us rejoice’, are the opening words of a medieval student drinking song which urges its young singers to enjoy the pleasures of their youth. Its first verse runs:

Gaudeamus igitur/Iuvenes dum sumus./Post iucundam iuventutem,/Post molestam senectutem,/Nos habebit humus.

(‘So let us rejoice/while we are young./After the delights of youth, /After the burdens of old age,/The earth will have us.’)

The remaining nine verses of the song elaborate on the transience of life before ending with expressions of good will to the students’ institution and its teachers (Vivat academia! Vivant professores!) and to their country and its ruler (Vivat et res publica et qui illam regit).

Perhaps surprisingly in the light of its origins as a drinking song, the singing of Gaudeamus igitur forms part of the graduation ceremony at a number of American universities and colleges.

The related Latin noun gaudium (joy) is the origin of the English noun gaudy (pronounced IPA: /'gɔː dɪ/), the word used, in certain UK universities (e.g., Oxford and Durham), to refer to a celebratory college feast.

The word gaudy also occurs as part of the title of a novel, Gaudy Night, by the crime writer and poet, Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957). In the novel Harriet Vane, a mystery writer, attends a gaudy at her old Oxford college, but, while,there, is disturbed to become the recipient of an obscene drawing and a poison-pen letter. Some months later, after many members of the college have received such letters and there has been an outbreak of vandalism in the college, the Principal invites Harriet to return to investigate, and Harriet in turn calls in her friend, the celebrated amateur detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, to help her solve the mystery.

Do not confuse the noun gaudy with its homograph and homophone, the. adjective gaudy, which means ‘bright, colourful in a crude or vulgar way; garish’. This adjective has a similar etymology to the other words on this page, being formed from the noun gaud (‘a trinket or bauble’), which probably comes through the Old French gaudir (‘to be joyful’) from the Latin gaudere.

See also Carpe diem.