2018-12-18:

Lorem ipsum

Lorem ipsum is a common placeholder text in publishing and graphics design, which gives documents or websites the appearance of holding real text, without containing any meaningful content.

The text is a mashup of sections in Cicero's philosophical work De finibus bonorum et malorum. A common form reads:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

As words from the original have been removed, added, or altered a precise translation from Latin is not possible. However, the original meaning of the first sentence goes something like this:

Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure.

The source of the above standard form is unknown. However, a 1914 version of De finibus contains a page break in the middle of the term "(do-)lorem ipsum", suggesting that this page might have been the basis for the scrambled version.