Is there a Latin word or phrase that can be used as an antonym of the Latin "pace," which means "with all due respect to"

Question

In English the Latin word "pace" (abl. of "pax") is used as a polite way to indicate that you disagree with the person to whom you are (perhaps sarcastically) showing respect; for example, "Carrots may well be nutritious, but, pace Dr. Smith, they are not by any means a panacea" means that you feel Dr. Smith is wrong.

What I'm looking for is a word or phrase to suggest the opposite, that you agree with or support Dr. Smith and feel he is correct, in other words some phrase or preposition that would serve to fill in the blank here: "Carrots are not, pace Dr. Smith, a panacea; however, __________ Dr. Smith, they are indeed a wonderful source of some vitamins."

Answer 1

In academic writing, you have a few standard options, such as secundum (following, according to) or per (as stated by). However, as another tutor (@Michel) noted already, the exact connotation you're looking for isn't found in any of the set Latin phrases we use in academic writing. I agree, since simply using secundum or per can make it sound as if you don't really agree with the statement. The statement "however, secundum/per Dr. Smith, they are indeed a wonderful source of some vitamins" uses the Latin prepositions (secundum and per) to attributes the ideas to Dr. Smith. These prepositions don't imply that you agree with the statement (while conversely, pace does imply that you disagree).

If you're willing to forgo Latin (at least according to what standard, academic usage would allow), you could achieve your aim with a few English words. You need two signals: one to indicate a shift from disagreement to agreement, and another to affirm the correctness of the subsequent statement.

To signal that you're shifting gears, you'll need an adversative conjunctive adverb to show your readers that what's coming up next is no longer disagreement, but will actually be agreement. In your carrot example, you use pace to respectfully show disagreement and then you use the adversative conjunctive adverb "however" to show that now you're shifting gears away from disagreement. (Other options for adversative conjunctive adverbs would include "nevertheless," or "even so.")

Now you want to show that the statement actually is correct. You've actually already shown this by saying "indeed" in the phrase "they are indeed a wonderful source of some vitamins." However, you also wanted to show that the hypothetical Dr. Smith has also asserted this fact. (After all, we wouldn't want readers thinking that Dr. Smith has nothing worthwhile to say.) So, you can use can now use a subordinate clause to give the specifics about the idea you're agreeing with. Here you just need to use the subordinate clause that indicates Dr. Smith conveyed the idea and that the idea is correct. So, we could say something like "as Dr. Smith rightly maintains" or "following Dr. Smith's correct assertion."

As an example of putting it all together, you could say, "Carrots are not, pace Dr. Smith, a panacea; however/nevertheless/even so, as Dr. Smith correctly/rightly maintains, they are indeed a wonderful source of some vitamins."

Then again, maybe you could come up with a standard Latin usage for agreement in academic writing!

Keep us posted as to what you end up using, and best of luck writing!

Answer 2

The opposite of “with all due respect, I disagree” is something on the order of “ irrespective of my opinion of you (or your views) I agree”. My initial feeling on this is that this is a lot to demand of Latin, since there are two ideas here that have to be expressed simultaneously. I may be wrong, but you will probably not find something as concise as pace.