Word Roots
ROOTS
GREEK ROOTS
ROOTS
WORD ROOTS
100
is a Greek root from the word meaning “wise” or “wisdom.” In our language, the root often appears in words where the wisdom concerned is of the “wiseguy” variety. But in words such as philosophy we see a more respectful attitude toward wisdom.
What is SOPH ?
100
comes from the Latin noun lux, “light,” and the verb lucere, “to shine or glitter.” Lucid prose is clear in meaning, as if light were shining through it. Lucifer, a name for the devil, means “Light-bearer,” the name he had before he fell from heaven.
What is LUC ?
100
from the Latin noun vox and the verb vocare, has to do with speaking and calling and the use of the voice. So a vocation is a special calling to a type of work; an evocative sight or smell calls forth memories and feelings; and a vocal ensemble is a singing group.
What is VOC/VOK?
100
comes from the Latin mori, “to die,” and mort-, the stem of mors, meaning “death.” A mortuary is a place where dead bodies are kept until burial. A postmortem examination is one conducted on a recently dead body. And a memento mori (a Latin phrase meaning literally “Remember that you must die”) is a reminder of death; the death’s head carved onto an old gravestone is an example.
What is MOR/MORT?
100
comes from the Greek word for “light.” Phos can be seen in the word phosphorous, which refers generally to anything that glows in the dark and also to a particular glowing chemical element. Phot, the more familiar root, appears in words like photography, which is the use of light to create an image on film or paper.
What is PHOS/PHOT
200
from the Latin tendere, meaning o stretch, extend, or spread,” can be seen most simply in the English word tent, meaning a piece of material stretched or extended over a frame. It can also be seen in the word extend, which means “to stretch forth or stretch out,” and in tendon, the word for a band of tissue that stretches from a muscle to a bone.
What is TEND/TENT?
200
from the Latin verb haerere, means “to stick” or “to get stuck.” This has produced words with two kinds of meaning. A word such as adhesive means basically “sticking,” whereas a word such as hesitate means more or less “stuck in one place.”
What is HER/HES?
200
is a Greek root meaning “sound,” “voice,” or “speech.” It is similar to the Latin voc in meaning but typically means only “sound” when used in such words at telephone (“far sound”), microphone (“small sound”), or xylophone (“wood sound”).
What is PHON ?
200
from the Latin verb putare, meaning “to think, consider, or believe,” has come to English in a variety of forms. A reputation, for example, is what others think of you; a deputy is someone “considered as” the person who appointed him or her.
What is PUT?
200
comes from the Latin terra, “earth.” Terra firma is a Latin phrase that means “firm ground” as opposed to the swaying seas; a terrace is a leveled area along a sloping hill; the French call potatoes pommes de terre, literally apples of the earth”; territory is a specific piece of land.
What is TERR ?
300
meaning “to hang, weigh, or cause to hang down,” comes from the Latin verb pendere. We find it in English in words like pensive, meaning “thoughtful,” and appendix, that useless and sometimes troublesome piece that hangs from the intestine.
What is PEND/PENS?
300
comes from the Latin verb fugere, meaning “to flee or escape.” A refugee flees from some threat or danger to a refuge, which is a place that provides shelter and safety.
What is FUG?
300
from the Latin verb curare, means basically “care for.” Our verb cure comes from this root, as do manicure (“care of the hands”) and pedicure (“care of the feet”).
What is CUR?
300
from the Greek word logos, meaning “word, speech, reason,” is found particularly in English words that end in –logy and –logue. The ending –logy often means “the study of”: biology is the study of life, and anthropology is the study of humans. The ending –logue usually indicates a type of discussion: dialogue is conversation between two people or groups, and an epilogue is an author’s last words on a subject.
What is LOG?
300
from the Latin word mare, meaning “sea,” brings its salty tang to English words like marine, “having to do with the sea,” and submarine, “under the sea.”
What is MAR?
400
comes from Greek with its spelling and meaning intact. It simply means “all” in Greek; as an English prefix it can also mean “completely,” “whole,” or “general.” A panoramic view is a complete view in every direction. Panchromatic film is sensitive to the reflected light of all colors in the spectrum. Pantheism is the worship of all gods. A pantheon is a temple dedicated to all the gods of a particular religion. A pandemic outbreak of a disease may not literally affect the entire human population, but enough to create catastrophic problems.
What is PAN?
400
comes from the Latin verb scire, “to know” or “to understand.” This root appears in the word science, which refers to factual knowledge, and in conscience, which refers to moral knowledge. And to be conscious is to be in a state where you are able to know or understand.
What is SCI ?
400
usually means “going around something.” With a periscope, you can see around corners. Peristalsis is the bodily function that moves food around the intestines; without it, digestion would grind to a halt. The moon’s perigee is the point in its orbit where it is closest to the earth. The point in the earth’s orbit around the sun that brings it closest to the sun is the perihelion.
What is PERI?
400
from the Latin word pars, meaning “part,” comes into English most obviously in our word part but also in words like apartment, compartment, and particle, all of which are parts of a larger whole.
What is PART?
400
from the Latin verb jungere, means “join.” A junction is a place where things come together. A conjunction is a word (such as and or or) that joins two other words or groups of words: this and that,” “to be or not to be.”
What is JUNCT?
500
places words outside or beyond their usual or routine territory. Extraterrestrial and extragalactic affairs take place beyond the earth or the galaxy. Something extravagant, such as an extravaganza, goes beyond the limits of reason or necessity. And of course extra itself is a word, a shortening of extraordinary, “beyond the ordinary.”
What is EXTRA?
500
comes from the Latin verb peller, meaning “to move or drive.” A propeller moves an airplane forward. When soldiers repel an enemy charge, they drive it back. And to dispel something is to drive it away.
What is PET/PULS ?
500
from the Latin verb sentire, meaning “to feel,” or the noun sensus, meaning “feeling” or “sense,” can signify different kinds of feeling. Sentimental has to do with emotions, whereas sensual relates more to physical sensations.
What is SENT/SENS?
500
from the Latin verb mittere, “to send,” appears in such English words as missionary, missile, and emit. A missionary is sent out to convert others to a new faith; a missile is sent to explode on some far spot; and to emit is to send something out.
What is MIT/MIS?
500
from the Latin necare and the noun noxa, have to do with killing or slaying. These roots are related to the Greek nekros, “corpse,” found in such words as necrology, “a list of the recently dead,” and necromancy, “the art of conjuring up spirits of the dead.”
What is NEC/NIC/NOX?
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