by Dwane | Apr 1, 2015 | Education, English, Latin, Vocabulary
April: the fourth month. April derives from the French avril, which is from Latin Aprilis. Aprilis was the second month of the ancient Roman calendar… until it became the fourth month. No one really knows where the word comes from, but, that hasn’t stopped...
by Dwane | Mar 31, 2015 | Education, English, Greek, Vocabulary
Apodal: footless Apodal comes from Greek ἀ (a): without and ποδός (podos), the genitive of πούς, the Greek word for foot. Eels, snakes, worms, snails, and slugs are apodal.
by Dwane | Mar 31, 2015 | Education, English, Latin, Vocabulary
Biped: a two footed animal. A two footed being. The Latin adverb bis, means twice, two, or two times. The Latin word for foot is pes. The genitive of foot is pedis. Combine both and you end up with biped, a two footed creature. According to Plato, man is a featherless...
by Dwane | Mar 30, 2015 | Education, English, Greek
Arthropoda: a jointed-foot invertebrate. Insects, crustaceans, millipedes, and centipedes are arthropods. Arthropod comes from the Greek word ἄρθρον (arthron), meaning joint. No, California, not that kind of joint. Put your hand down. The “poda” of the word comes...
by Dwane | Mar 30, 2015 | Education, English, Greek, Latin, Vocabulary
I am increasingly stunned by the debt English owes to Latin and Greek. Perhaps this is simply because I never seriously studied vocabulary as a child. Perhaps this, for everyone else, is general knowledge. Perhaps everyone knows Latin and Greek dumped boatloads of...
by Dwane | Mar 28, 2015 | Education, English, Latin, Vocabulary
One of my favorite quotes comes from The Pledge, by Michael Masterson. “Words matter. They help us define meaning. We think with words. We learn with words. Words are the fundamental tools we use for communicating. If we use them well, we can cut, and shape,...
