#2: spiro, spirare, spiravi, spiratum: to breathe

Greetings and well wishes (the word merrythought just popped into my mind, a charming word for a wishbone) etymology fans! After the inaugural fortnight (a truncated form of "fourteen nights;" much less frequently used is the word "sennight," which describes the period of one week, or "seven nights") of hoopla and good tidings that our new President (he who etymologically "sits before" us all), we now must all keep up our spirits as he and his new administration come to grips with the mess that the world economy is in. Hoping that he can breathe life into a gasping financial situation, let's take another look at an apropos root, one that we ourselves began exploring a fortnight ago:

Spiro, spirare, spiravi, spiratum—to breathe {spiro-}
Spiritus—breath, the soul, vigor, that which animates life
(the above word roots are referenced from www.wordempire.com )

SAT-level English vocabulary words that are related to this root might be a good way to look into that which might reanimate our world into a golden age, much indeed as Augustus found Rome made of bricks and left it made of marble; could not the Presidency of Barack Obama portend similarities? For now we, as a nation, are dispirited from an economic standpoint, that is, we have our "vigor apart" from where it should be, that is, there has been a "reversal of soul" that has taken us from past good times and plunged us into the murky depths of impending or current unemployment (via the Latin prefix dis—apart, not, away from, reversal). Times like these do tend to dispirit us, as the stock market plunges seemingly daily, coming back to tantalizing and seemingly spirited rallies, that is, those that are "vigorous" and "animated" by hope, only to reverse course downward yet again (the great cycles of the stock market do tend to move in a tripartite fashion, that is, that of hope, fear, and greed). Some have believed that there is a conspiracy of sorts (members of a conspiracy etymologically ‘breathe together’ when
hatching a plot) that is keeping the stock market tied to wild gyrations, that is, past greed of banks with current loss of jobs that is feeding loss of more jobs to hedge the worsening of the economy.
While things of this nature do tend to conspire to aggravate matters, acting in a conspiratorial fashion, one must remember that we do live in a world of opposites, ruled by mythological principles, that is, that light coexists with the dark, as good times coexist or supplant bad. So although difficult times seem to last forever, they, as an archetype for the type of world in which we live, cannot persist, something which the beleaguered tend to forget once enmeshed in the slippery mire of catastrophic downfall. Evil days will transpire, have transpired, are indeed transpiring, but will eventually run out of breath, at which point we will all again begin to aspire towards a hopeful recovery; this aspiring foreknowledge (via the Latin aspirare, ‘to long for;’ when Elissa aspired to become a dancer, she used every ‘breath towards’ her aspiration) can pay dividends even in the midst of a crisis by reminding us that there have been crises before, but that our aspirations to fix them have always worked, and must indeed work; we just must work diligently towards them with a good heart and a sober, focused mind, lest our worry, stress, and general psychological malaise cause our core hopefulness to expire (‘x’ is linguistically equivalent to ‘ks,’ hence the spir morpheme is retained; to expire is to ‘breathe out’ one’s last breath), suffering an untoward and unnecessary expiration which will exacerbate our current problems to ones truly of irremediable decreptitude, perhaps even requiring extreme measures to get our respiration going again (that breathing again...and again...and again...via the Latin prefix re-: back, again), hence once again resurrecting our humanly indomitable esprit de corps (but I digress, as that last phrase really is intended for next week's discussion)! Breathe, breathe, breathe...and focus on that breath, and that is all there really is at that moment. Try it...you'll appreciate its simplicity and soothing nature.


Did you enjoy all the subsidiary words, such as the important prefixes and suffixes, talked about in the above post? If so, check out this Greek and Latin roots and English vocabulary words site, sure to whet your appetite for the core roots of the English language; word origin is not only fascinating, but highly powerful. Interested in a Greek and Latin roots poster that features the above Latin root? Or more beautiful Greek and Latin root word trees that list 100s of English derivatives? For the verbal enthusiast serious about learning her English vocabulary, there is no quicker route to learning and remembering our wonderful English language than truly learning Greek and Latin root words.

Inauguration: post 1

Welcome, etymology fans! Although I would usually be continuing to comment this week about the Latin root I started last week, that is spirare (to breathe), let's take a short breather from that to discuss all the fascinating Greek and Latin roots behind the wonderful inaugural proceedings of the new 44th President, Barack H. Obama. Let's begin at the heart of the English word inauguration by looking at its word origins:

Augeo, augere, auxi, auctum—to increase, make greater, enhance
+ consider the following root which is related to augere:
Augur—diviner, seer

What exactly is an inauguration? To the ancient Romans, augurs, or those who tried to predict the future (seers, prophets, oracles, or seers would be suitable synonyms) would often forecast an upcoming term of rule by a magistrate (such as a consul or emperor) by examining the activities of birds which would lay open or intimate the near future success of his rule. Often the augur, during the ritual which initiated the new magistrate, would examine the flight paths of birds to determine whether or not they predicted a good or auspicious reign for the new leader. Indeed, as you may have guessed, the word auspicious, which today means favorable, propitious, or successful when considering the beginning of a particular activiy, comes from two key Latin roots:

avis: bird (hence the "au," an English root or stem which usually signifies the Latin word aurum: gold, but in this instance the "v" is changed to a "u" for purposes of euphony and ease of pronunciation), from which also comes words such as "aviation" and "aviary"

+

Specio, specere, spexi, spectum—to see, observe, look, watch over {spic, spis, spit} (from which comes a whole host of English derivatives, an aesthetically appealing and arboreal list of which can be found on the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available at www.wordempire.com )

Hence, the English vocabulary word "auspicious" at base means "looking at" or "observing birds" in order to forecast a favorable or propitious future. Indeed, many augurs could hardly cast little less than a favorable augury, or prophecy, beneath the gaze of an expectant inductee into office, especially that of an omnipotent emperor!

Hence, we then see that to inaugurate a president is to ‘enhance’ or 'increase' his chances of success via an auspicious formal ritual. The origin of this ceremony included the ‘diviner,’ who would ascertain the success of the new magistrate via prophetic signs, such as the flight path of birds, and sometimes even their feeding habits. Consider the vast ritual and preparatory activities that surrounded the inauguration of President Barack Obama: wonderful music, a physical crowd nearing one million spectators, a global audience branching into the billions, braving the elements, the pomp and circumstance of the balls, the incredible speech given by Mr. Obama himself (I was stunned that, without a hitch, he delivered this, unfazed and sans notes, before the collected expectant masses of the world), the readying of the city of Washington, D.C, and yea, even the re-swearing in of the President the next day in order to ensure the formal authenticity of his new Presidency (this has Roman origins based in superstition: if the ritual for the incoming magistrate was not performed perfectly, that is, if a word was mispoken or a sacrifice of a snow white bull was not carried out in the prescribed manner, the ceremony would have to be done over again; the Romans were firm believers in a quid pro quo relationship between themselves and their gods...if they gave the gods exactly what they wanted, then they would receive exactly what they wanted, in this case, a successful term for ruling). This is why the inauguration of our 44th President was such a big deal: not only did it have deep and meaningful present-day historical significance, but it also possessed a deep and long historical chain of ceremonious conduct leading up to it, a thing lawyers love to call precedence, on which they place much significance.

And so it was with the inaugural proceedings of our new President, the most powerful leader in the world, which only served to hopefully augment, or etymologically increase or make greater, his chances at fulfilling his lofty campaign promises to fix a currently broken world.


Did you enjoy all the subsidiary words talked about in the above post? If so, check out this Greek English vocabulary words site, sure to whet your appetite for the core of the English language. Interested in a Greek and Latin roots poster that features the power of Greek and Latin root words? Or more beautiful Greek and Latin root word trees that list 100s of English derivatives? For the verbal enthusiast serious about learning his English vocabulary, there is no quicker route to learning and remembering our wonderful English language.

#1: spiro, spirare, spiravi, spiratum: to breathe

One of the most common things that we do as human beings is move. Many of the early Ind0-European roots have to do with verbs of movement, such as the breath that moves in and out of us. Many words have to do with this most basic of human needs, such as in the following Latin roots:

Spiro, spirare, spiravi, spiratum—to breathe {spiro-}
Spiritus—breath, the soul, vigor, that which animates life

The breath is of paramount importance in the practice, for instance, of yoga; following one's breath is a path to nowness, or samu, that is, the concentration only on what is going on during the present moment, and not worrying about that which happened in the past, or becoming frazzled about that which may happen in the future. Let's discover how many important English vocabulary words exist based upon this archetypal act:

Have you ever felt inspired to write a poem? The muse, perhaps Calliope herself, has "breathed" that desire "into" you, thereby giving you the inspiration to do so {when an artist has an inspiration, an idea has been etymologically ‘breathed into’ her mind}. One can also find some things, such as certain movies or tv shows, completely uninspiring, that is, "no breath" has been put "into" one, leaving one feeling unenthusiastic or just plain vanillaed.

The spirit is that which has been "breathed" into us, thus animating (from the Latin animus: mind, soul, spirit) us, giving the power to move and live. Much has been said in religious and philosophical circles concerning the spirit or soul, which has the same tenuousity as the breath, but also the same undeniable essence that forms who we are (indeed, although the wind is manifestly invisible, it nevertheless exerts tremendous force,and hopefully, via wind turbines, will help to aid and abet the world in its search for clean and renewable energy). Hence, the spiritual life concerns the breath, a nice segue back to clearing the sem (the sem, or flea mind, is a term that yoginis use to describe that nagging part of our minds that has over 60,000 random, desultory thoughts per day if allowed to have full reign over our mental faculties), and hence that which originally breathed life into us, or that from which we came (the word religion itself means a "linking back," via the Latin verb ligo, ligare: to tie--yes, same root for ligament and ultimately league). William Wordworth's Intimations of Immortality is such a wonderful poem to remind us of our glorious beginnings, and hopefully not our complete removal from this luminescent transcendence. How striking it is that something we must do every moment of our lives has such far reaching implications is we would only pay attention to its simple power.

Have you ever spent a glorious day hiking in the Green Mountains of Vermont? If so, your skin probably "thoroughly breathed," hence perspired; perspiration is thereby "the act of breathing through" the pores of the skin for the purposes of evaporative cooling, which efficiently carries off the heat of the body via water. Sometimes this is unwanted, especially via autonomous dysfunction, at which point anti-perspirant comes in most handy.

Did you enjoy all the subsidiary words talked about in the above post? If so, check out this Greek and Latin roots and English vocabulary words site, sure to whet your appetite for the core of the English language. Interested in a Greek and Latin roots poster that features the above Latin root? Or more beautiful Greek and Latin root word trees that list 100s of English derivatives? For the verbal enthusiast serious about learning his English vocabulary, there is no quicker route to learning and remembering our wonderful English language.

#2: scribo, scribere, scripsi, scriptum: write

Welcome back, etymology fans, to the second entry for the Latin root scribo, scribere, scripsi, scriptum: to write. This week I will focus on SAT derivatives that come from one of the more important Latin roots of the English language.

Look at all the following SAT words, all engendered by one simple Latin root and its attendant morphemes:

scribo, scribere, scripsi, scriptum: to write

scribe: a person who "writes," or copies, professional documents and manuscripts
nondescript: etymologically "not written about;" that is, of unclear nature or having no individuality
script: a style of "writing," such as handwriting or a particular system of writing
inscribe: to "write," engrave or carve upon a surface
inscription: the product of the inscribing
circumscribe: etymologically to "write around," that is, to draw a line around, hence,
by extension, to limit or restrict or define the boundaries of
circumscription: the state of being circumscribed
transcribe: etymologically to "write across," that is, to make a copy in full of another written
work
transcription: the product of the transcribing
transcript: an official "writing," such as a record of college courses taken at a university, along
with grades and degree transferred
subscribe: to "write under," thus, by extension, pledge an amount of money, or sign one's name
to, e.g. "subscribing" to the idea of cloning as a plausible answer to immortality of the
individual
prescribe: to "write beforehand;" that is, proffer as a rule or guide of conduct, or make rules to
be followed; most commonly heard as a doctor's suggestion for remedial medicine
prescription: the act of "prescribing," that is, aught prescribed as a rule or law to be followed,
such as a doctor's written document to be shown at a pharmacy

Intrigued by all the affixes, such as prefixes and suffixes, found in the entry above that go with the primary morpheme scribere? Check out this list of Latin roots and list of Greek roots for all the prefixes and suffixes of the English language based on Latin and Greek; you will be simply amazed at what you can find, and how helpful www.wordempire.com can be when it comes to learning English vocabulary via Greek and Latin roots. In addition to beautiful Greek and Latin root word trees, a striking Greek and Latin roots poster is available, and numerous other Greek and Latin root words, based upon Word Empire III: Clarity, the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available. To discover a daily SAT vocabulary word and a Onceler word, please check out Magister Brunner's Latin roots SAT word of the day, an entertaining and informative discussion on the wonders of word origin and the fun of the English language.

#1: scribo, scribere, scripsi, scriptum: write

Welcome back, etymology fans! I hope you have all had some wonderful holidays, and make a habit of learning a great deal about English vocabulary words for the new year. I shall begin this year focusing on one of the more prolific Latin roots that give rise to many English derivatives, the root:

Scribo, scribere, scripsi, scriptum—to write

Today let's discuss simpler words that come from this root to see how the root word works in English. To scribble is to write usually with little purpose. To describe someone's appearance is to "write" about it; giving a full description can often be a time-consuming task, worthy of the best authors. In fact, people are, by and large, perfectly indescribable as it is hard to know oneself, much less know about another; Marcel Proust discusses this conceit fully in In Search of Lost Time. I often wonder if Proust, as he lay sick and often completely lost in a debilitating fog while trying to write his 3000+ page manuscript (etymologically that which is "written" by hand, via the Latin root manus: hand), ever thought he would finish, or would be able to provide a summary that would even suggest what his greatest work was even about, trying to woo perennially recalcitrant publishers.

Speaking of publishing, a subscriber ‘underwrites’ a magazine by paying money for a ‘subscription,’ thereby supporting its existence. A term that is becoming rather obsolescent with the phasing out of the typewriter (though I saw one for sale the other day in a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog--excellent stuff they sell) is the word "typescript," (via the Greek typos: blow, impression, form) which is a manuscript completed upon said instrument. Holy scripture are etymologically simply "writings" (scriptural matters are those things "written" in holy works, such as the Koran, Torah, Tao te Ching, and the Pentateuch).

PS: Latin for post scriptum, an abbreviation used for something ‘written after’ the main body of a letter, a kind of highly truncated epistolary epilogue, as it were.

Intrigued by all the extra roots found in the entry above? Check out this list of Latin roots and list of Greek roots: you will be simply amazed at what you can find, and how helpful www.wordempire.com can be when it comes to learning English vocabulary via Greek and Latin roots. In addition to beautiful Greek and Latin root word trees, a striking Greek and Latin roots poster is available, and numerous other Greek and Latin root words, based upon Word Empire III: Clarity, the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available. To discover a daily SAT vocabulary word and a Onceler word, please check out Magister Brunner's Latin roots SAT word of the day, an entertaining and informative discussion on the wonders of word origin and the fun of the English language.