It is strange to observe how many linguists do not know how to exploit an etymology properly. One of the sad consequences of this ignorance is the destructive and unjustifiable rejection of traditional vocabulary within the realm of grammar which linguistics is supposed to defend. The symptom indicates the more serious condition of an ignorance of profound grammatical truths that the ancient Romans and Greeks had discovered, but which, for the most part, have escaped our attention because often we do not know how to use words properly. As an illustration of this point, I ask you to reconsider with me the word “case.” Its grammatical meaning is almost always a source of confusion even though both English and French have cases. Since the word comes to us from Latin, I shall first examine what “case” is and how it works out in the Latin language.