vel

Latin has two words for "or" and the difference is real. "aut" separates alternatives that exclude each other, as in a genuine either-or. "vel" offers a choice where either would do, or where the speaker is simply reaching for a better word: it comes from "volo", to want, and its original sense is "take your pick". Doubled as "vel ... vel ..." it gives "either ... or ...", with the same relaxed flavour.

Placed in front of a single word, especially a superlative, it means "even": "vel maximus", even the greatest. In manuscripts and printed texts you will meet it abbreviated to a bare "u", since Latin wrote the same letter for u and v, which is why the corpus behind this list counts it as "uel".