Word Spotlight #119: Malus

In a Latin class today, we talked about the word for bad, malus. From malus, English gets all kinds of bad words.  No.  Not that kind of bad words. The following English words trace their origins back to malus: Malice – the desire to do evil Malicious – intending to...

Diagramming Henle Latin: First Year Latin – Chapter One

If you have ever worked your way through the Henle Latin series, by Robert Henle, you know the author asks students to diagram sentences. The series was published around seventy years ago.  Back then, kids new how to diagram.  Schools still taught the skill.  These...

Word of the Day #117: Oubliette

In a French class this morning, my students and I learned the French word for forget: oublier. We spent a few minutes talking about the word.  Oublier, the French verb, comes from the Latin verb meaning the same thing, obliviscor.  Forgetful, in Latin, is oblitus....

Word of the Day #116: Apanthropy

Raining hard in Tennessee today.  On days like this my apanthropy usually kicks in. Apanthropy is the desire to be alone, a love of solitude.  Apanthropy comes from two Greek words.  The preposition ἀπό (apo) means “away from”.   Ἄνφροπος (anthropos), which you may...

Word of the Day #110: Calendar

Calendar: a system for measuring the days and months of the year. Calendar comes from the only word in Latin that uses the letter K, Kalendae.  The Kalendae, to the Romas, was the first day of the month.  It was also the day debts were due and accounts were reckoned....

Word of the Day #109: December

December: the twelfth and final month of the year December comes from the same root word that gives us the English decade (a period of ten years), decennial (occurring every ten years), decimal (to the tenth place), and dime (ten cents). December means: the tenth...