Root

Original Meaning/

Usage Notes

English Derivatives

Vocabulary

cap(i)t- [cip(it)-] [from Latin]

(noun)

head

capital [literally, ‘headlike;’ the governmental seat or headquarters of a geopolitical entity; wealth, especially money or property used to produce more money and property.]

capitellum [literally, ‘little head;’ the knob at the lower end of the humerus that interlocks with the radius.]

captain [literally, ‘head person;’ the commander of a vessel, such as a starship, or of a formally organized group of persons.]

to decapitate

occipital

sinciput [literally, ‘half the head;’ the upper half of the cranium; the forehead.]

to decapitate (verb) [literally, ‘to take the head down from;’ to behead.]

occipital (adjective) [literally, ‘against the head;’ pertaining to the back part of the head or skull.]

cephal- [from Greek]

(noun)

head

acephalous [literally, ‘headless.’]

brachycephalic [literally, ‘short-headed;’ having a short, broad head.]

cephalopod

encephalitis [literally, ‘inflammation in the head;’ inflammation of the brain.]

encephalogram

hydrocephalic [literally, ‘water headed;’ congenital condition characterized by an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the cerebral ventricles that destroys much of the neural tissue.]

cephalopod (noun) [literally, ‘head foot;’ a mollusk of the class Cephalopoda, such as the octopus, characterized by a large head and prehensile tentacles,]

encephalogram (noun) [literally, ‘writing of the head;’ an x-ray image of the brain.]

Root

Original Meaning/

Usage Notes

English Derivatives

Vocabulary

post- [from Latin]

(preposition)

after (either in time or in space)

posterior [literally, ‘more after;’ later in time, space, or importance.]

posterity

posthumous [literally, ‘after (one is in) the ground;’ after one’s death.]

post meridiem (PM) [literally, ‘after midday.’]

postmortem [literally, ‘after death;’ forensic dissection and analysis of a dead body to determine the cause of death.]

to postpone

posterity (noun) [literally, ‘afterness;’ future humans; one’s own future descendants.]

to postpone (verb) [literally, ‘to put after;’ to put off to a later time; to delay.]

meta-/met- [from Greek]

(preposition)

after, with

[Note: This comes to mean ‘necessarily preliminary or propaedeutic to.’]

metabolism [literally, ‘throwing after;’ the interweaving of the physiochemical processes within an organism that are necessary to sustain life.]

metamorphosis [literally, ‘after shaping;’ transformation, perhaps caused by magic or by divine intervention.]

metaphor

metaphysical [literally, ‘pertaining to the things after the natural things;’ pertaining to the philosophy that studies the nature of the whole or the whole of nature; pertaining to the science that studies the preconditions for a kind of knowledge, such as the metaphysics of morals.]

metempsychosis [literally, ‘being ensouled after(ward);’ the transmigration of souls at death from one being into another.]

method

metaphor (noun) [literally, ‘borne after or with;’ a figure of speech in which one thing is identified with another.]

method (noun) [literally, ‘way after;’ a systematic procedure for accomplishing a goal.]

Root

Original Meaning/

Usage Notes

English Derivatives

Vocabulary

flect-/flex- [from Latin]

(verb)

to bend

circumflex [literally, ‘a bend around;’ a punctuation mark (ˆ) placed over a vowel in certain languages to indicate a quality of pronunciation.]

flexible [literally, ‘bendable;’ physically or psychically fluid or adaptable.]

to genuflect

inflected

reflection [literally, ‘bending back;’ the bending back, say, of light, from a surface; serious thinking.]

reflex [literally, ‘a bend back;’ an automatic physiological response, such as the blink of an eye.]

to genuflect (verb) [literally, ‘to bend the knee;’ to kneel in prayer.]

inflected (adjective) [literally, ‘bent unto;’ of words, the alteration of the form of a word to indicate its function in a clause.]

Root

Original Meaning/

Usage Notes

English Derivatives

Vocabulary

anim- [from Latin]

(noun)

soul

to animadvert

animal [literally, ‘ensouled thing;’ a member of the biological kingdom of Animalia possessing the capacity for locomotion and a fixed bodily structure.]

animation [literally, ‘acting with soul;’ vivacity and spiritedness.]

animism

animosity [literally, ‘fullness of soul;’ deep hatred.]

magnanimous [literally, ‘big-souled;’ having and showing a generous spirit toward others.]

to animadvert (verb) [literally, ‘to turn one’s soul toward;’ to express strong disapproval or harsh censure of someone.]

animism (noun) [literally, ‘soulism;’ the belief that everything in the world possesses a soul and is alive.]

psych- [from Greek]

(noun)

soul

metempsychosis [literally, ‘being ensouled after(ward);’ the transmigration of souls at death from one being into another.]

psychiatry

psychoanalysis [literally, ‘loosening up the soul;’ the method of psychic treatment or therapy formulated by Sigmund Freud.]

psychology

psychosis [literally, ‘soul condition;’ severe mental dysfunction.]

psychosomatic [literally, ‘soul-bodily;’ relating to an illness with physical or bodily symptoms but with a mental or psychological cause; psychogenic.]

psychiatry (noun) [literally, ‘soul healing;’ the medically based science of mental functioning.]

psychology (noun) [literally, ‘speech about the soul;’ the non-medical science of mental functioning.]