The Greek & Latin Roots of English (9 page)

C. The following Latin words (32–49) are used in English without any change in form or ending. Find the original Latin meaning of each word by looking in an unabridged English dictionary. Which of these words have changed in meaning, even when they have remained the same in form?

D. In exercises 50–70, fill in the blank with the word that best defines the italicized word or part of a word in the sentence. Make sure that your sentences are grammatically correct.

Example

An
audit
ion allows an actor to be
heard
.

50. An
ag
ent is someone who __________things for you.

51. A
capt
ive is one who has been__________.

52. A
ped
estrian goes by __________.

53.
Data
are information that is __________.

54. At a con
vent
ion, delegates __________together.

55. A
fact
ory is a place where goods are __________.

56. The in
script
ion was __________on the wall of the house.

57.
Stat
us is an indication of one's social__________.

58. Trans
port
ation is a means of __________across.

59. A de
posit
is money __________ down on an item to be purchased.

60. “Please re
mit
payment” is a polite way of saying “__________ us back the money.”

61. E
locut
ion lessons teach you how to __________ out.

62. A con
duct
or __________ the orchestra.

63. When he told me he had re
vert
ed to smoking, I knew he had __________back to his bad habits.

64. Se
que
ntial numbers __________ one another in order.

65. I got a
merit
increase in my paycheck that I __________ because of my hard work.

66. He ex
hort
ed the students to work harder, but his __________ had no effect.

Sometimes a Latin verb form will become a noun in English. In the following sentences, what is the literal meaning of the italicized word, and what is its current English meaning?

67. The
recipe
called for six eggs, but I had only five. ____________

68. His speech contained one
non sequitur
after another, and I became more and more confused. ____________

69. His book had the
imprimatur
of the leading scholars in the field. ____________

70. The doctor admitted that he had given me only a
placebo
, but even so, I felt much better. ____________

E. In Exercises 71–78, fill in the blank in each sentence with one of the words listed below that best completes the meaning of the sentence.

71. He said he loved me, but I rejected his __________ advances.

72. His __________ remark made me feel as if he wanted to bite me.

73. We couldn't reach an agreement, and so the court appointed an __________ to make the decision.

74. I wanted to be a sailor, but I suffered from __________.

75 Before I had reached the __________ of the building, the guard opened the door.

76. His __________ jokes convinced me that he had a sick sense of humor.

77. He said he was presenting the outline of the course in __________, so I could follow what he was saying.

78. I knew there would be a price to pay, even though my friend said the tickets were __________.

Footnotes

1
. There is no indefinite (
a, an
) or definite (
the
) article in Latin.

2
. The use of the active voice indicates that the subject of the sentence is doing the action (the wolf ate the boy). The passive voice indicates that the subject of the sentence is receiving the action (the boy was eaten by the wolf).

3
. Mood is the way of expressing the action of a verb as a fact (indicative), as a command (imperative), or as a possibility that may or may not occur (subjunctive). The subjunctive in both Latin and Greek has many uses.

4
. For this reason, the third principal part of the verb will not be given in subsequent vocabulary.

5
. The perfect passive form is really a verbal adjective (called a participle) as well as a verb. Since all nouns and adjective have gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), every participle has a masculine, feminine, and neuter form, depending on the gender of the noun it is describing. The form previously given (-
um
) is the neuter form. We shall see in the following chapters the consequences of this dual function of the participle.

6
. The present stem of third conjugation deponent verbs replaces the distinguishing final
e
that it lost when forming the infinitive.

7
. In compounds of
capio, facio
, and
teneo
, the
a
or
e
of the present stem becomes an
i
. For example,
recipio-recipere-receptum = take back
conficio-conficere-confectum = make together, accomplish
retineo-retinēre-retentum = hold back, restrain

LATIN INTO ENGLISH