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Latin Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes

About 3000 B.C., our male ancestors led their women-folk on their great migrations in two directions | After the Battle of Hastings, in 1066, William the Conqueror imposed Norman rule upon England | If you understand the following story, you understand at least one word from thirty-two different languages! | Note: Greek forms are capitalized, Latin in normal case. | Numerals | Word/ Origin of Word | Vocabulary List One | Categories | Latin Expressions in English | Standard Latin Abbriviations |


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  3. Note: Greek forms are capitalized, Latin in normal case.
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  6. See Sullivan's Dictionary; (Introduction, p. lxiv. &c.) in which the Latin and Greek roots of words in English are enumerated.

Latin was the language spoken by the ancient Romans. As the Romans conquered most of Europe, the Latin language spread throughout the region. Over time, the Latin spoken in different areas developed into separate languages, including Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. These languages are considered “sisters,” as they all descended from Latin, their “mother” language.

Many Latin words came into English directly. Monks from Rome brought religious vocabulary as well as Christianity to England beginning in the 6th century. From the Middle Ages onward many scientific, scholarly, and legal terms were borrowed from Latin.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, dictionary writers and grammarians generally felt that English was an imperfect language whereas Latin was perfect. In order to improve the language, they deliberately made up a lot of English words from Latin words. For example, fraternity, from Latin fraternitas, was thought to be better than the native English word brotherhood.

The following table lists some common Latin roots.

Latin root Basic meaning Example words
-dict- to say contradict, dictate, diction, edict, predict
-duc- to lead, bring, take deduce, produce, reduce
-gress- to walk digress, progress, transgress
-ject- to throw eject, inject, interject, project, reject, subject
-pel- to drive compel, dispel, impel, repel
-pend- to hang append, depend, impend, pendant, pendulum
-port- to carry comport, deport, export, import, report, support
-scrib-, -script- to write describe, description, prescribe, prescription, subscribe, subscription, transcribe, transcription
-tract- to pull, drag, draw attract, contract, detract, extract, protract, retract, traction
-vert- to turn convert, divert, invert, revert

From the example words in the above table, it is easy to see how roots combine with prefixes to form new words. For example, the root -tract-, meaning “to pull,” can combine with a number of prefixes, including de- and re-. Detract means literally “to pull away” (de-, “away, off”) and retract means literally “to pull back” (re-, “again, back”).

In ordinary life, knowing Greek and Latin components of English enhances understanding and facilitates communication, but in the sciences, particularly in areas of medicine, it could be more serious.


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