Abate

Abate: To decrease, or become less in strength or violence; as pain abates; a storm abates. Once upon a time, this word meant, ”to put an end to, or to destroy” Over time, abate came to represent something diminishing in power, or diminishing in strength. Abate passed...

Acrophobia

Acrophobia: fear of heights. There is nothing to fear, but fear itself. And heights. And public speaking. And spiders… especially spiders. Acrophobia comes from Greek ἄκρον (height, summit, peak), and and φοβία (fear).

Assimilation

When Latin went out of business, many Latin prepositions got jobs as prefixes in English. For instance, the Latin preposition “ad” meaning, “to, toward” became the English prefixes ac-, ad-, af-, ag-, al-, an-, ap-, ar-, as-, at-. This process...

Agony

Agony – extreme physical or mental suffering. Or… A one armed man, with an itch, hanging from a cliff. Or… a waiting room with one tv looping old episodes of the Knight Rider. Or… Learning Latin from most textbooks. From Greek ἀγωνία...

Adult

Adult: a person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.  From Latin adultus (mature, ripe, fully grown).

Online Class enrollment

Learn Latin, Greek, or English vocabulary derived from Latin and Greek. That is a mouthful. Online class enrollment begins this Friday! Just like HealthCare.gov, enrollment will remain open for a while. UnlikeHealthCare.gov, I will not force you to join a class...