Notebook, bedroom and mailbox are some obvious examples but also note elbow (ell + bow) and lackadaisical (from the expression 'lackaday' which itself derives from 'alack the day').

From root + affix

Prefix + root

Pro- (forward or forth) + duce (lead) = produce ("bring forth")

Root + suffix

Wonder + -full = wonderful

Through changing pronunciation

Breakfast, cupboard, extraordinary

Through changing spelling

Alone is from 'all one'. Felt was once used to strain liquid, so the piece of felt used as the strainer became known as a felter, which later changed to filter. "God be with you" was once a valediction which, over the centuries, came to be pronounced and spelled as good-bye.

From names (eponyms)

People's names:

The Teddy Bear is named after Teddy Roosevelt and the electrical volt after Alessandro Volta.

Place names:

Frankfurters after named after Frankfurt, Germany, and jeans after Genoa, Italy.

Trade names:

Kleenex, Band-aid, Jello, Xerox, Hoover

From the shortening or truncating of words

Telephone becomes phone, photograph becomes photo, megabyte becomes meg

From acronyms

Sonar = SOund NAvigation Ranging, laser = Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Portmanteau words

Motor + hotel = motel

From foreign words

Influenza (Italian), rendezvous (French), chow (Chinese), opal (Sanskrit)

Invented words

Quiz, quark

Latin Roots

Latin Root

English Meaning

English Example Word

act act, do actual

ami like, love amiable

cad fall cadence

ced go intercede

cept take, hold intercept

cid kill, cut genocide

clud shut, close occlude

cred believe incredulous

cur run incur

dict tell edict

duct lead induct

fact make, do benefactor

fer bear, carry confer

flect flex, bend genuflect

gress step, go forward egress

here stick, adhere inherent

ject throw eject

junct join conjunction

leg read, choose illegible

loqu talk, speak loquacity

mit send transmit

mov move immovable

ped foot centipede

pel drive impel

pend hang pendulum

pon put respond

port carry transport

press press, hold impress

rupt break disrupt

scrib write describe

sect cut intersect

sent feel sentient

sequ follow sequence

spect look introspection

sta stand station

tact touch tactile

termin end determine

tract draw, pull tractor

vent come invent

vert turn convert

vict conquer evict

vid see video

voc call vocalize

volv roll, turn evolve

Latin Prefixes

Latin Prefix

English Meaning

English Example Word

ab away abduct

ad to, toward admit

ante before, in front of antecedent

bene well, good benediction

bi two bifocal

circum around circumvent

co together cooperate

contra against, opposite contrary

de from, down deprecate

dis apart, differently disgrace

e out elect

extgra outside extraordinary

in in inject

in not involuntary

inter between intercept

intra within, in intraocular

mal badly, evil maltreat

ob in the way obstruct

per through percolate

post after postmortem

pre before preside

pro forward, forth promote

re again, back relent

retro backward retroactive

se apart secret

semi half semi-circle

sub under submarine

super above supernatural

trans across transcontinental

ultra exceedingly ultralight

Greek Affixes

Greek Affix

English Meaning

English Example Word

anthropo man anthropologist

anti against antihistamine

astro star astrology

auto self automobile

biblio book bibliography

bio life biosphere

chrom color monochromatic

chron time chronology

cosmo world microcosm

cracy government autocracy

dem people demographic

eu well, good euphemism

geo earth geography

graph write autograph

hydro water hydrophobia

hyper over hyperactive

hypo under hypodermic

log speech, word syllogism

logy science, study meteorology

meta beyond metaphysics

meter measure hygrometer

micro small microorganism

mis hate, wrong misogyny

mono one monosyllable

onym name synonym

pan all pantheism

path feeling sympathy

peri around peripatetic

phil love Anglophile

phob fear agoraphobia

phon sound megaphone

poly many polyphony

pseudo false pseudonym

psych mind psychology

scop see oscilloscope

soph wisdom sophomore

syn together synchronize

tele at a distance telemetry

theo God or god theology

therm heat thermometer

Indo-European consonants

The table below shows the major Indo-European languages with some of their consonants. As you can see, the consonants are not arranged alphabetically but, rather, in groups of similar sounds. For instance, the 'stops' are all sounds which are produced with a little explosion of air, such as p, t and k. If the vocal chords vibrate when a 'stop' is articulated then it is said to be 'voiced' (e.g. b, d and g). If a 'stop' is followed by an extra puff of air it is said to be 'aspirate' (as the th in pot-hook and the dh in mud-hole).

We may here discern the evolution of this family of languages over time from the (theoretical) prehistoric Indo-European through ancient Greek and Latin to modern German. Modern English is not included as it is actually a mixture of Old English (also known as Anglo-Saxon) and Old French which makes it, technically, a creole.

To illustrate one way in which this table may be used, let us consider septa, the Latin word for seven. It uses the continuant: s, an unvoiced stop: p and a voiced stop: t. If we check the same columns for Greek we find that the only difference is that the s changes to an h and, hepta is indeed the Greek word for seven. Again, the Latin word pater becomes the English father and the Latin frater becomes brother. Note that differences in vowels (such as the o in brother) are not predicted by this table.

CONSONANTS

Stops

Cont.

Sonorants

unvoiced

voiced

voiced aspirate

nasal

liquid

glide

Sanskrit

k/c

g/j

gh/h

r/l

l/r

*Indo-European

k^w

g^w

g^wh

i/y

w/u

Hittite

Tocharian

t(c)

Old Persian

g/d

g/j

g/d

g/j

Avestan

k/c

z/g

g/z

Old Church Slavonic

k/c'/c

g/z'/z

Lithuanian

Greek

p/t/k

b/d/g

ph/th/kh

h/z -

Latin

v/gu

f(b)

f(d)

Old Irish -

g -

Armenian

z(j)

g/v

Gothic

h(j)

hw/w

b/g

Common Germanic

kw/k

Old English

cw/k

g(y)

Old Norse

kv -

Old High German

hw/w

p/pf

t/d

Middle Dutch

th/d

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Last Updated 10/08/06 11:15 PM