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 words into our language.
When Compass Classroom asked me to help create the series, Word Up, I actually thought that we might, at some point, run out of words. Not to put to fine a point on it, that was seriously misguided.
The more I study, the more I see, that we will never run out of words. Ever.
We could create “Word Up” episodes to the day I die. We would not run out of words.
When I began researching, I decided it would be best to compile the words into a single document. Soon, my computer forced me to divide it into two. Not long after, I had to split it again.
Today, the document has multiplied to 54 files totaling over 500 pages. And, it is growing daily. Every time I post a new “word of the day,” it grows.
I bit off more than I can chew, but, I just can’t stop chewing.
Starting today, we will look at English words which derive from the Greek and Latin words for “foot.”
Incidentally, in my research, I discovered some ancient wisdom you may want to remember as you head off to work.
“A closed mouth gathers no feet.”
Have an excellent day!