Words and people have a lot in common. Like people, words are born, grow up, get married, have children and even die. And, like people, words come in families — big and beautiful families. A word family is a cluster of words that are related because they contain the same root. A root is a basic building block of language from which a variety of related words are formed. You can grow your vocabulary by digging down to the roots of an unfamiliar word and identifying the meanings of those roots.
For example, knowing that the roots scribe and script mean “write” will help you to deduce the meanings of a prolific clan of words, including ascribe, conscript, describe, inscribe, manuscript, nondescript, postscript, prescribe, proscribe, scribble, scripture and transcribe. For another example, once you know that dic and dict are roots that mean “speak or say,” you possess a key that unlocks the meanings of dozens of related words, including abdicate, benediction, contradict, dedicate, dictator, Dictaphone, dictionary, dictum, edict, indicate, indict, interdict, jurisdiction, malediction, predict, syndicate, valedictorian, verdict, vindicate and vindictive.
Suppose that you encounter the word antipathy in speech or writing. From words like antiwar and antifreeze you can infer that the root anti- means “against,” and from words like sympathy and apathy that path is a root that means “feeling.” From such insights it is but a short leap to deduce that antipathy means “feeling against something.” This process of rooting out illustrates the old saying “It’s hard by the yard but a cinch by the inch.”
Desultory descends from the Latin de-, “from,” and salire, “to leap.” The Roman desultors, or leapers, were circus performers who performed the feat of jumping from one galloping horse to another. They were soon compared with people who fitfully jumped from one idea to another in conversation. Desultory is a member of the sult family meaning “jump or leap.” Insult first meant “to attack suddenly, assault,” from the Latin in, “upon,” and sult, “to leap, jump.” When you insult people, you literally jump on them.
Other of the sult family appear as sal, sil and sault. Salient facts are those that leap out to your attention. A resilient person jumps back to his or her or original state after suffering an assault. To execute a somersault is to leap while swinging your heels above (somer, from supra, “above”) your head.
You can expand your verbal powers by learning to look an unfamiliar word squarely in the eye and asking, “What are the roots in the word, and what do they mean"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=8b64ff35-2d21-481e-88ae-8562dded85bd&cid=1ffe15d6-eb53-11e9-b4d2-06948452ae1a'; cnx.cmd.push( function() { cnx( { playerId: "8b64ff35-2d21-481e-88ae-8562dded85bd" } ).render( "11982501ceb44352bd1e95848c612274" ); } );
1. AUTO – autobiography, autograph, automaton = _______
2. CHRON – chronic, chronology, synchronize = _______
3. CULP – culpable, culprit, exculpate = _______
4. EU – eugenics, eulogy, euphemism = _______
5. GREG – congregation, gregarious, segregate = _______
6. LOQU – eloquent, loquacious, soliloquy = _______
7. MAGN – magnanimous, magnify, magnitude = _______
8. NOV – innovation, novelty, renovate = _______
9. OMNI – omnipotent, omniscient, omnivorous = _______
10. PHIL – bibliophile, philanthropy, philology = _______
11. SOL – isolate, soliloquy, solitary = _______
12. SOPH – philosopher, sophistication, sophomore = _______
13. TELE – telegraph, telephone, television = _______
14. TEN – tenacious, tenure, untenable = _______
15. TRACT – extract, intractable, tractor = _______
16. VAC – evacuate, vacation, vacuum = _______
17. VERT – convert, introvert, vertigo = _______
18. VIV – survivor, vivacious, vivid = _______
19. VOC – invoke, vocal, vociferous = _______
20. VOL – malevolent, volition, voluntary = _______
Answers
1. self; 2. time; 3. blame; 4. good; 5. kind, species; 6. speak; 7. large; 8. new; 9. all; 10. love;
11. alone; 12. wise, wisdom; 13. far away; 14. hold; 15. pull; 16. empty; 17. turn; 18. life, lively; 19. call, voice; 20. wish
