The Greek & Latin Roots of English (16 page)

NAME _______________________________________________________________________

A. Transliterate each of the following Greek words and, using your unabridged dictionary, find an English derivative and its current usage.

Example

B. Clearly, anyone or anything can be in charge. What is each of the following forms of governance?

C. Fill in each blank with the literal meaning of the italicized word or part of a word. Make sure that your sentences are grammatically correct. If you are not sure of the derivation, check your dictionary. Some of the Greek vocabulary is to be found in the exercises above.

Example

A micro
scope
is a
tool for viewing
small objects.

26.
Geology
is the __________ __________ the earth;
geography
is __________ __________;
geometry
is __________ __________.

27. An an
archi
st __________ a lack of __________.

28. A thermo
meter
is an ____________________ heat. [thermos (θερμός) = warm]

29. Your
arch
enemy is your __________foe.

30. In many science-fiction movies, robots are called andr
oids
because they __________ humans. [aner, andros (ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός) = man]

31.
Dynamism
is __________ that all phenomena in the world can be explained by the action of force. (dynamis [δύναμις] = force, power)

32. What is the literal meaning of
basilisk
? (βασιλεύς = king) ____________________ What sort of creature was it thought to be? ____________________

33. An
ophthalmoscope
is an ____________________ the ____________________.

34. In ancient Athens, the
polemarch
was the individual who was the ____________________ in times of ____________________.

35.
Topography
is literally ____________________ about ____________________. What is its current usage?

36. A
chronometer
is an ____________________ ____________________.

37.
Gerontology
is ____________________ ____________________.

38. Some students think that
scholastic
effort should be made only when they have ____________________.

39. A monolith is a monument that consists of a single stone. What is the current meaning of
monolithic
? ____________________ (λίθος = stone)

40. In 399 BCE, the Greek philosopher Socrates was put on trial in Athens on charges, among others, of corrupting the young. According to his pupil Plato, in court he gave a speech that we now call the
Apology
. Since Socrates would never have said that he was sorry about anything he had done, what was he doing in this speech? ____________________

D. Construct a sentence using an English derivative of the following Greek words:

Footnotes

1
. The adjectival suffix
-oid
is often used in English as a learned borrowing to mean
similar to
or
resembling
.

2
. The noun-forming suffix
-ism
is often used as a learned borrowing to indicate a belief in or adherence to a particular point of view—political, religious, or otherwise—e.g.,
communism, realism, monotheism
. The suffix
-ist
is used either to form adjectives or to indicate a person who subscribes to a particular position: e.g.,
communist, realist, monotheis
t.

3
. Arche (ἀρχή) also means “beginning” or “first in authority.” When used as a prefix in English, it usually means “chief”: e.g.,
archbishop, archenemy, architect
.

4
. -
ize
, a verb-forming suffix that denotes action, is frequently used as a learned borrowing in English in the formation of neologisms, such as
sanitize, customize
, etc. Neologisms are new words or expressions, which English is forming all the time.

LATIN
and
GREEK
PREFIXES

A sixth-century BCE bronze statue of the Greek hero Heracles (National Museum, Athens)

And though thou hadst small Latine and less Greeke, From thence to honour thee, I would not seeke For names
.

BEN JONSON (seventeenth-century English playwright and poet)

“To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare” (1623)

Prefixes formed from Latin and Greek prepositions are most often adverbial, that is, they qualify or modify some action that is described by the word to which the prefix is attached.

I. LATIN PREPOSITIONS