Updated The Lorem ipsum text is derived from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of Cicero 's De finibus bonorum et malorum . [6] [7] The physical source may have been the 1914 Loeb Classical Library edition of De finibus , where the Latin text, presented on the left-hand (even) pages, breaks off on page 34 with "Neque porro quisquam est qui do-" and continues on page 36 with "lorem ipsum ...." [1] The Lorem ipsum text continues with excerpts that appear to generally match the layouts of pages 56, 70, and 118, [8] suggesting that the layout of the Loeb book was the source of the dummy text seen today. [1] The first published explanation of the text's origin is attributed to Richard McClintock, a Latin scholar at Hampden–Sydney College .
McClintock connected Lorem ipsum to Cicero's writing sometime before 1982 [ further explanation needed ] by searching for recorded uses of the Latin word consectetur , which was rarely used in classical literature. [2] McClintock first published his discovery in a 1994 letter to John McWade, the editor of the Before & After magazine, [9] contesting McWade's earlier claim that Lorem ipsum had no meaning. [2] That letter claimed that the placeholder text had been used since the 1500s, but McClintock admitted in a 2026 interview that that date had been a guess with no evidence to back it up. [8]