Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 50 [mov-, mot-]
October 31, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes |
English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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| (base)
mov-/mot- [from Latin]
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(verb) to move
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emotion motion [literally, ‘moving.’] motor movement [literally, ‘moving.’] remote [literally, ‘moved back;’ situated in a far away and hidden place.] to remove [literally, ‘to move back;’ to take away; to relocate.] |
emotion (noun) [literally, ‘a moving out;’ intense mental feeling, often accompanied by physical changes.]
motor (noun) [literally, ‘that which moves;’ a machine or part of a machine that produces motion, such as an automobile engine.] |
Election Sanity: A Proposal for Reform
October 26, 2010
Our legislators have become so focused on holding office after they are elected that legislation has become a series of campaign-oriented posturings rather than free exercises of rationally conscience-driven policy initiatives. This is a societal blight that has been created by an unintended collusion of the political parties, the media, and the electorate. Only a radical restructuring of our electoral process can bring sanity and responsibility into campaigning for office and office-holding.
Such a restructuring should involve a sweeping simplification of the electoral process, according to the following outline:
(1) Define the campaign season narrowly and strictly as the time period between Labor Day and the Saturday preceding Election Day.
(2) Designate the calendar week preceding Labor Day as Candidacy Declaration Week. Prohibit any declaration of candidacy before that time period, and make any announcement of candidacy outside that time period a disqualification for candidacy.
(3) Designate the calendar week preceding Election Day as Debate Week. Require that all debates between candidates be inclusive of all candidates and freely open to the public.
(4) Prohibit all political advertising, either by candidates or their surrogates, during Debate Week.
(5) Prohibit all media subject to federal regulation from projecting winners on Election Night until the last polling place in the last state is closed.
This restructuring would drastically reduce the funds that a person would need to run for office, thereby opening the electoral field to less affluent qualified candidates. That would produce a desirable democratization of the electoral field.
Finally, we should impose term limits on congressional service, say, five terms for representatives and two terms for senators. No office outside the Supreme Court should be susceptible of being a lifetime sinecure.
The restructuring suggested above would effect an electoral process that is more egalitarian and a legislature that is—of necessity—more responsive and efficient.
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 49 [jac-, ject-]
October 24, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes |
English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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jac-/ject- [from Latin]
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(verb) to throw, to hurl
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abject [literally, ‘thrown (away) from;’ drastically reduced in condition; miserable; wretched.] conjecture [literally, ‘a throwing together with;’ a guess or hasty inference.] to inject [literally, ‘to throw into;’ to propel something (such as a fluid or a remark) into something else (such as a body or a conversation).] object projection [literally, ‘a throwing forth;’ a thing that extends out; the placing of one’s own feelings into another person or onto the environment.] subject |
object (noun) [literally, ‘thrown against;’ something perceived by the senses; a goal or focus of mental activity; (grammar) a substantive that receives the force of an action verb or that is governed by a preposition.]
subject (noun) [literally, ‘thrown under;’ a person ruled by another person; a topic or academic field of study; (grammar) the substantive that governs the finite verb in a clause.] |
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 48 [prim-/prot-]
October 17, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes |
English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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prim- [from Latin]
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(adjective) first
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primacy [literally, ‘firstness;’ the condition of being first or most important.] primal [literally, ‘first;’ first in time or in emotional importance to an individual’s , a group’s, or a culture’s development.] primary [literally, ‘first (in rank);’ first in importance.] primate primitive [literally, ‘first-like;’ crude or unsophisticated, as in the earliest stages of the development of something.] primordial |
primate (noun) [literally, ‘firstish (one);’ a mammal of the order that includes the anthropoids and prosimians; a bishop of the highest rank.] primordial (adjective) [literally, ‘first arising;’ pertaining to the beginning of the sequence of time.] |
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prot- [from Greek]
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(adjective) first
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protagonist protein [literally, ‘firstish (thing);’ one of a group of complex organic macromolecules that contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and usually sulfur, that are composed of one or more chains of amino acids, and that are fundamental components of all living cells.] proton protoplasm [literally, ‘first fashioned (thing);’ the semi-fluid, translucent substance that constitutes the essential living matter of plant and animal cells and that includes the nucleus and cytoplasm.] prototype [literally, ‘first outline;’ the original model that serves as the basis for all other items of the same sort.] protozoan [literally, ‘first animal;’ one of a large group of single-celled, usually microscopic, organisms, such as amoebae.] |
protagonist (noun) [literally, ‘first professional competitor or champion;’ the central figure in a play or other literary work.]
proton (noun) [literally, ‘first (thing);’ a stable, positively charged subatomic particle.] |
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 47 [trans-/tran-/tra-]
October 10, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes |
English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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| (prefix)
trans-/tran-/tra- [from Latin]
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(preposition) across
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to transcend [literally, ‘to climb across;’ to pass above the ordinary, physical condition of things.] to transfer transgression to transpose [literally, ‘to put across;’ to reverse or to change the order of things.] to transcribe [literally, ‘to write across;’ to copy verbatim.] transvestite [literally, ‘dressing across;’ a person who compulsively wears the clothing of the opposite gender.] |
to transfer (verb) [literally, ‘to bear across;’ to move something from one person or place to another.]
transgression (noun) [literally, ‘stepping across;’ a violation of accepted limits; a sin.] |
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 46 [omn-/pan(t)-]
October 3, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes |
English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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omn- [from Latin]
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(adjective) all, every
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omnibus omnidirectional [literally, ‘in all directions;’ able to transmit or to receive signals from every direction.] omnifarious [literally, ‘on all sides;’ of every type.] omnipotent omniscient [literally, ‘knowing all things.’] omnivorous [literally, ‘devouring all things;’ eating both animal flesh and vegetation; devouring anything.] |
omnibus (noun) [literally, ‘for all (persons);’ a large vehicle for public transportation (later shortened to “bus”); an anthology of literary selections, either by one author or by various authors on one theme or in one genre.] omnipotent (adjective) [literally, ‘all-powerful.’] |
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pan(t)- [from Greek]
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(adjective) all, every
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panacea [literally, ‘cure-all;’ a cure for all diseases, woes, or evils.] pancreas [literally, ‘all flesh;’ a gland in vertebrates, behind the stomach, that secretes juice into the duodenum and insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin into the bloodstream.] pandemonium panoply pantheism [literally, ‘god in all (things)-ism;’ the philosophical position or religious belief that God is present in everything.] pantomime [literally, ‘imitating all (things);’ telling a story or communicating silently, by means of gestures and movements alone.] |
pandemonium (noun) [literally, ‘all demoniacality;’ noisy tumult bordering on chaos.] panoply (noun) [literally, ‘all armor;’ a magnificent display; full ceremonial dress.] |
