The Greek & Latin Roots of English (8 page)

As we shall see, there are many English words that are derived from these verbs.

SOME VERY USEFUL LATIN VERBS

Be Grateful for Small Things

To the great relief of Latin students everywhere, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions are not declined.

Double Meanings

Sometimes, two words will have the same Latin root, but end up appearing in words that have totally different meanings. For example,

egregious
and
gregarious
both derive from
grex, gregis
= flock
salary
and
saline
both derive from
sal, salis
= salt
money
and
admonish
both derive from
moneo-monēre-monitum
= warn.

Check your unabridged English dictionary for current meanings of these words and how these meanings developed.

Doublets

When two different English words derive from the same root and have related meanings but different English spellings, they are called
doublets
. Doublets most often occur when a Latin root comes into English in two different ways: directly from Latin and through an intermediary language, such as French, as well. For example,

amiable
and
amicable
both derive from
amicus, amici
= friend
card
and
chart
both derive from
charta, chartae
= paper
poison
and
potion
both derive from
potio, potionis
= drink
royal
and
regal
both derive from
rex, regis
= king
traitor
and
tradition
both derive from
trado-tradere-traditum
= hand over

Check your dictionary to see if you can find a word that is a doublet of
fragile
.

Un Faux Ami, or What Did I Say?

A word can be spelled the same in two different languages but have no etymological connection. For example, the French word
coin
means corner, while the German word
kind
means child. The French call these seemingly related words
faux amis
, or false friends.?

NAME _______________________________________________________________________

A. Find the stem of each of the following Latin nouns or adjectives and list an English derivative and its current usage. Use your unabridged English dictionary to find the derivative and its definition. Remember: the genitive case (minus the ending) gives each noun or adjective its stem.

Examples

B. In exercises 19–31, find the present or perfect stem, and an English derivative and its current usage for each of the following Latin verbs:

Examples