The Greek & Latin Roots of English (37 page)

Optics
is that branch of physics that deals with the nature and properties of light and vision.

Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics
is that branch of physics that deals with the relationship between heat and energy.

GEOLOGY

Earth first produced starry Sky, equal in size to herself, to cover her on all sides
.

HESIOD,
Theogony
126

Geology
is the study of the structure of the earth's crust and the formation of its various layers, including rock types and fossils. In ancient Greece, the earth was considered to be the oldest of all the deities; her name was Gaia, and she had given birth to the first generation of gods and to all good things in nature. We still call our planet Mother Earth.

I'll Drink to That…

Like today, many stones were regarded as precious by the ancient Greeks, but some were thought to have special properties. The amethyst, for example, was believed to prevent intoxication.

methu
(μέθυ) = wine

Paleontology

Paleontology
is that branch of geology that deals with prehistoric life through the study of plant and animal fossils (the remains or traces of animal or plant life of earlier geological ages). For the nonspecialist, perhaps the most exciting fossils are those of the dinosaurs, the reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic period (220–265 million years ago). They, too, have a classical name.

Jurassic Park, Revisited …

Perhaps the most frightening of the dinosaurs was the forty-five-foot-long
Tyrannosau- rus rex
, a carnivore that had teeth that were a foot in length. What are the Greek and Latin roots of his name? His playmates included the brontosaurus and the pterodactyl. What were their special characteristics?

Jurassic
, by the way, is just a synonym for
Mesozoic
, an age in the earth's history that occurred between 70 and 220 million years ago.

δεινός = terrible, dread

βροντή = thunder

GEOGRAPHY

But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is in no way credible
.

ST. AUGUSTINE,
City of God

Geography
is the study of the physical and human landscapes on the surface of the earth, the location and distribution of its natural and cultural features, the processes that affect them over time and space, and the relationship and interaction between humans and their environment.

Gerhard Mercator, sixteenth century Flemish cartographer, who created a world map and is said to have coined the word “atlas” to describe a collection of maps?

METEOROLOGY

Let the forked curl of fire be hurled against me, let the air be stirred by thunder and the convulsive blast of the savage winds
.

AESCHYLUS (fifth-century BCE Athenian playwright),
Prometheus Bound
(1043–1045)

Meteorology
is the science that deals with the study of the atmosphere and atmospheric phenomena, including weather and climate.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…

Zeus, of course, was the god who sent thunder and lightning bolts. They were the weapons he used to show his displeasure and to punish those who had angered him. The Greeks believed that the winds were the children of Eos (Dawn) and Astraeus (“the Starry One”), a Titan.

“Astraeus and Dawn—god and goddess—lay together in love and Dawn gave birth to the violent winds; Zephyr, who brings fair weather; Boreas, who opens a path for the storm; and Notus. After the winds, Dawn gave birth to the stars—the morning star and the shining constellations.” Hesiod,
Theogony
375–383

The Winds

The Seasons

In Greek mythology, the Seasons, or
Horae
, were thought to be the daughters of Zeus and the goddess Themis. It is their Roman names, however, that give us our English derivatives.

MATHEMATICS

To ancient Greek scientists, mathematics was considered to be a branch of philosophy because they believed that through mathematics one could come to understand all the physical and spiritual relationships among the constituent parts of the cosmos. Modern mathematics has a perhaps more limited goal: it is that branch of knowledge that deals with quantities, magnitudes, and forms; their measurements; and their interrelationships.

Circular Reasoning

The mathematical term
pi
, which represents the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference, was a symbol used by Greek mathematicians to represent the word περ- or circumference. Can you figure out the literal meaning of this Greek word?

Cybernetics

In 1948, the noted mathematician Norbert Wiener coined the term
cybernetics
to describe the study of systems of control and communication within and between humans, machines, organizations, and society. Although cybernetics encompasses fields of research as diverse as the study of neural networks and chaos theory, it is most popularly associated with the development of computer technology and artificial intelligence.

The use of digital computers has introduced a host of new words to the English language, such as
megabyte
and
gigabyte
, as well as acronyms such as RAM, and has given new meanings to old words, such as
memory, virtual reality, digital
, and
flexibility
, that are formed from Greek and Latin roots.