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Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 27 [grad-/gress-]
May 23, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes
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English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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grad-/gress- [from Latin]
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(noun/verb) step/to step
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aggression congress [literally, ‘stepping together;’ an official assembly or meeting.] grade [literally, ‘step;’ a position in a process or on a scale of measurement.] gradual progress [literally, ‘stepping forward;’ forward movement toward a goal.] regression [literally, ‘stepping back;’ returning to a less mature or less civilized state of being.] |
aggression (noun) [literally, ‘stepping toward;’ proneness to initiating hostile actions or attacks, either physical or mental.] gradual (adjective) [literally, ‘step-by-step;’ progressing) by small increments.] |
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 26 [cap(i)t-/cip(it)-/cephal-]
May 16, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes
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English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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cap(i)t- [cip(it)-] [from Latin]
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(noun) head
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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.] |
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cephal- [from Greek]
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(noun) head
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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.] |
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 25 [post-/met(a)-]
May 9, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes
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English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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post- [from Latin]
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(preposition) after (either in time or in space)
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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.] |
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meta-/met- [from Greek]
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(preposition) after, with [Note: This comes to mean ‘necessarily preliminary or propaedeutic to.’]
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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.] |
The W Word [expanded from a post on my Facebook page]
May 4, 2010
I am debating whether it is more infantile to use an objectionable (ethnic/sexual-orientation) epithet or to refer to it by its first letter (as in “the X word”).
In addition, I wonder whether it is possible to find at least one such objectionable word for each letter of the alphabet. For example, the A word (anglophile), the B word (bolshevik), the C word (codger), the D word (Derridean), the E word (euthanasiac [I made this one up]). the F word (feudalist), the G word (geriatric), the H word (herpetologist), the I word (ideographologist), the J word (Jesuit), the K word (Kandorian), the L word (lycanthrope), the M word (monomaniac), the N word (necrophiliac), the O word (omphaloskeptic), the P word (polymorphous pervert [a twofer]), the Q word (quisling), the R word (recidivist), the S word (Samaritan), the T word (Tuscaloosan), the U word (usufructuary), the V word (valetudinarian), the W word (word), the X word (xenophobe), the Y word (yodeler), the Z word (zombie).
Create your own list.
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 24 [flect-/flex-]
May 2, 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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flect-/flex- [from Latin]
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(verb) to bend
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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.] |
