The text is derived from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On the Ends of Good and Evil”), a 45 BC treatise on ethics by the Roman statesman Cicero.  The passage was originally scrambled by an unknown typesetter in the 15th century to create a specimen book, gaining widespread popularity in the 1960s with Letraset sheets and later becoming a default feature in desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker. 

The name “Lorem Ipsum” is a truncated version of the Latin phrase dolorem ipsum, which translates to “pain itself.” While the original Cicero text had philosophical meaning, the modern placeholder text is intentionally nonsensical to ensure that readers or clients do not get distracted by the content during the design phase.