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Most would agree that crosswords should generally be in English except for common phrases used in English such as cul de sac or schadenfreude.

Latin has not been taught in most schools in the UK for a few decades now. I have rarely heard anyone under 50 use a latin phrase.

Please don't have clues with latin answers unless the phrase has some common usage.

Tango

I use many Latin phrases, quid pro quo, per se, sine qua non, etc. There does not seem to be a reasonable English equivalent. I agree with the use of your cul de sac, and other French phrases e.g. raison d'etre.

Is it such a bad thing Tango?

One of the reasons I so enjoy doing crosswords is learning words and phrases that are new to me - sometimes quite obscure ones.

So long as they are available to find in the regular reference works I reckon they're fair game.

Has a particular example irked you?

Tango - can you provide a couple of examples of Latin words/phrases that you felt were inappropriate and the sort of crossword in which they appeared?

I'd like to think that most adults under 50 would, inter alia, understand 'per annum', 'per cent.' and 'post-mortem'.

I do not know any Latin at all, but I have no objection to Latin or foreign phrases being answers in crossword puzzles.
As long as the clue sends us to the answer I do not see that it matters, and it is good to learn new words or phrases, surely.
There is a "Phrases and quotations from foreign languages" section at the back of my Chambers Dictionary.

One of my favourite words is nonchalant!
I think words from other languages make ours so much richer.

President George W Bush was reputed to have said 'the trouble with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur'.

Sorry Tango, but Latin words are part of our language whether we like it or not - so setters have every right to use them!
At least you can `google` them if their meaning escapes you - I made a fool of myself recently because I didn`t know `heat` = `gun`... nobody can know everything!

I didn't know that either, Tyke51!
In fact, the more you know, the more you realise how little you do know.

I thought that . .

heater = gun/ pistol

But 'to pack heat' = carry a pistol . . so perhaps heat/heater



Back to the foreign language issue . .

An uncle of mine visited France in the 50's and told me of his surprise at the standard of French education. "Even the men sweeping the street, spoke fluent French," he told me

He had a very dry SOH and I was just a lad . . but to this day, I am not sure if he was serious or not

it's the scottish words that have me baffled... at least you can google the latin ones ...