The Greek & Latin Roots of English (24 page)

16. The function of a
legislature
is to __________ the __________.

17. An
aristocrat
believes in __________ __________. What is the current usage of this word? ___________________________________________________________________________

18. A
retrograde
motion is one that __________ __________.

19. Many newspapers claim to be the
vox populi
. What does that mean? ____________________

20. A
demagogue
is able to __________ __________ by arousing their emotions.

21. He crashed into a parked car on the day of his driving test. It was not a good sign of what was to come; in fact, you might call it __________.

22. He tried to con
vin
ce me with his arguments, but I was not about to be __________.

23. When he told me that the signs of success were
auspicious
, what did he mean? ____________________

24. What is the literal meaning of
metropolis
? __________ __________What is its current usage? __________

25. What is the literal meaning of
plebeian
? __________ What is its pejorative meaning? ______________________________________________________________________

26. The
nomin
al head of a committee is chairperson in __________ only.

27. If a person speaks with
candor
, he makes his feelings __________.

28. What is the literal meaning of
prolific
? __________ __________? What is its current usage? ______________________________________________________________________

29. The enemy's
belli
cose statements made the people fear that __________ was approaching.

30.
Auxiliary police
men are __________ agents trained to __________ the regular force.

31. His
polemical
attack made me feel that he was making __________________ against me.

32. The
milit
ant behavior of the protestors made them seem like __________.

33. When the Spanish explorer Balboa saw the
Pac
ific Ocean for the first time, he gave it this name because he thought it was __________.

34. Both the Latin word
sinister
and the French word
gauche
have taken on pejorative meanings. What were their original meanings, and what does each mean now? ________________________________________________________________

35. In ancient Rome, the
patricians
were regarded as the __________ of the country. What is the current usage of the word? __________

36. What is the difference in meaning between
belligerent
and
bellicose
? ________________________________________________________________

37. I thought he was my friend, but when he __________ me, I sneered, “
et tu
, Brute.”

38. Although in ancient Greek, the word
despot
meant merely master or lord, it has taken on a pejorative meaning in modern English usage. Why do you think this might have happened? _________________________________________________________________________

B. Many legal terms are used in nonjudicial settings. Can you figure out which Latin legal word or phrase applies in the following situations?

39. I had to prove I was somewhere else when the crime was committed. What I needed was a good __________.

40. When you go to a used car dealer, you really have to be careful about buying anything. It's always a matter of ____________________..

41. Although he denied that he had eaten the blueberry pie, the purple stains on his shirt established a very good __________ case against him.

42. Although the Supreme Court outlawed segregated schools __________, they can still exist in some areas __________.

43. The application for the job was very long and detailed, but my friend assured me that the place hired everyone, and therefore the process was just __________.

44. He used so many different names at different times that he couldn't remember which was his own name and which was an __________.

45. A person accused of
infid
elity is __________ __________.

46. When a dispute is
adjudic
ated, it is decided by turning it over __________ __________.

47. What is the difference in meaning between
incriminate
and
recriminate
? ______________________________________________________________________

C. Many Latin-based words in English have undergone many changes in spelling because they first passed into French. What are the Latin roots of the following words and what are their current usages? Use your dictionary to make sure you have the correct etymology.

What's in a Name?

Very often, words can take on meanings that are termed pejorative because they imply some sense of disparagement or scorn. The vocabulary of politics is filled with such words. During the 1980s, for example, the word liberal was used in some circles in a pejorative sense, while to describe someone as plebeian indicates that you think he is common or has poor taste. But American politicians were not the first to use language in this way. The Late Latin word
villanus
, which originally meant a farm laborer, has become our English word
villain
, while the Latin
vulgus
(crowd) is the root of the English word
vulgar
. What social attitudes do such usages reveal?

Footnotes

1
. All definitions are taken from Black's
Law Dictionary
(
thelawdictionary.org
).

PSYCHOLOGY

Oedipus and the Sphinx. Fifth century BCE. (Vatican Museum)

Why should a man fear where events of chance rule, and there is clear foreknowledge of nothing? It is best to live without plan, however one might. Do not fear marriage with your mother, for many men already have lain with their mothers in dreams. But these things are nothing to the man who bears life easily
.

SOPHOCLES (fifth-century BCE playwright),
Oedipus Tyrannus

MODERN THEORIES OF PSYCHOLOGY

The modern study of psychology includes the investigation of human (and animal) behavior in all its forms and manifestations, although most laymen still tend to view it in the context of the psychoanalytic theories of human action and motivation developed by the early twentieth-century thinkers Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and their successors. The language of psychology has so permeated our contemporary vocabulary that many of these terms have lost their original, narrowly conceived, and specialized meanings. Like the terminology of all of the modern sciences and technologies, the vocabulary is based primarily on learned borrowings from Greek and Latin.

Soul Study

In the earliest usage of the word
psychology
in English (seventeenth century), it meant the study of things concerning the soul.

Who Am I?

According to Sigmund Freud, the human psyche consists of three interactive components: