The Roman Occupation

For some reason the Romans neglected to overrun the country with fire and sword, though they had both of these; in fact after the Conquest they did not mingle with the Britons at all but lived a semi-detached life in villas. They occupied their time for two or three hun­dred years in building Roman roads and having Roman Baths, this was called the Roman Occupation, and gave rise to the memorable Roman law, 'He who baths first baths fast', which was a good thing and still is. The Ro­man roads ran absolutely straight in all the directions and all led to Rome. The Romans also built towns wher­ever they were wanted, and, in addition, a wall between England and Scotland to keep out the savage Picts and Scots.

(From 1066 and All That by С W. Sellar, R. J. Yeatman)

Lecture 5. The Etymology of English Words (part 2)

Exercises

I. Explain the etymology of the following words. Write them out in three columns: a) fully assimilated words; b) partially assimilated words; c) unassimilated words. Ex­plain the reasons for your choice in each case.

Pen, hors d'oeuvre, ballet, beet, butter, skin, take, cup, police, distance, monk, garage, phenomenon, wine, large, justice, lesson, criterion, nice, coup d'etat, sequence, gay, port, river, loose, autumn, low, uncle, law, convenient, lunar, experiment, skirt, bish­op, regime, eau-de-Cologne.

II. Classify the following borrowings according to the sphere of human activity they represent. What type of bor­rowings are these?

Television, progress, football, grapefruit, drama, philosophy, rugby, sputnik, tragedy, coca-cola, biolo gy, medicine, atom, primadonna, ballet, cricket, hock­ey, chocolate, communism, democracy.

III. Read the following jokes. Identify examples of inter­national words.

1. Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. 2. A psychologist is a man who watches everybody rise when a beautiful girl enters the room. 3. An expert is a man who knows a great deal about very little; and who goes on knowing more and more about less and less until finally he knows practically everything about nothing; whereas a reviewer is a man who knows very little about a great deal and keeps on knowing less and less about more and more until finally he knows practically nothing about every­thing.

IV. State the origin of the following translation-loans. Give more examples.

Five-year plan, wonder child, masterpiece, first dancer, collective farm, fellow-traveller.

V. Read the following text. What words were borrowed into English during the period described in it? Describe the borrowings of this period. Comment upon the etymological and stylistic peculiarities of the italicized words.

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