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cave ne cadas

Latin Phrases
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Beware lest you fall; warning against pride or overconfidence, often addressed to the successful.

Detailed Definition
Cave ne cadas, "beware lest you fall," warns against hubris, the dangerous confidence that precedes disaster. In poetry, this phrase appears as moral advice, cautionary wisdom, or prophetic warning to those riding high. Poets invoke it when addressing the powerful or fortunate, when predicting reversal, or when recognizing fragility beneath apparent strength. The phrase embodies tragic wisdom about fortune's wheel, the inevitable alternation of rise and fall. It appears in poems about ambition, political power, and human vulnerability, where speakers remind themselves or others that height increases danger of falling, that success breeds complacency that invites catastrophe, that vigilance must accompany achievement.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem about pride warns "Cave ne cadas—beware lest you fall from this height"; Verse addressed to the powerful invokes "cave ne cadas" as prophetic warning; A contemporary poet might write "Cave ne cadas: success breeds the arrogance that causes failure"; A poem about hubris employs the phrase: "At the summit I heard cave ne cadas but didn't listen"; Tragic verse uses "cave ne cadas" to foreshadow downfall; A poem about ambition might conclude "Cave ne cadas: remember that height increases danger"
Additional Notes
Cave ne cadas—beware lest you fall—embodies wisdom about hubris, the dangerous confidence that precedes disaster. Classical and biblical literature repeatedly warns that pride precedes fall, that success breeds complacency inviting catastrophe. Poets use the phrase when warning the powerful or fortunate, when prophesying reversal, or when recognizing their own vulnerability despite apparent security. Related to tragic hamartia, Fortune's wheel, and the de casibus tradition showing how mighty fall. Useful for understanding poems about ambition's dangers, political power's fragility, and the relationship between height and vulnerability. The phrase also appears in poems about aging, where speakers recognize that achievements won't protect against mortality. Connected to memento mori tradition and the medieval emphasis on Fortune's mutability—what rises must fall, what fortune gives fortune reclaims.
Also Known As
beware lest you fall
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