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Language Arts Lesson 1
Word Analysis, Fluency and Vocabulary Development (Grades
9-12)
Instruction 1-2
Etymology of Significant Terms | Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon Roots and Affixes | Greek,
Roman, and Norse Mythology | Analogies | Literal and Figurative Meaning of Words | Denotative
and Connotative Meaning | Summary
Discovery Videos:
Samuel Johnson: 1709-1785
GREEK, LATIN, AND ANGLO-SAXON ROOTS AND AFFIXES
In our last Instruction, you learned a little about where words come from. But words
don’t always come to us in final form. They come in pieces. Those pieces -- or word
parts -- are called roots, prefixes and suffixes. If you understand the meaning of one
part of a word, you can often understand the meaning of the whole thing.
Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon roots, prefixes and suffixes are the foundation of the
English language.
Although there are some exceptions, here is how it usually works:
The part at the beginning of a word is called the prefix.
The part at the end is called the suffix.
And the part in between is called the root (which is the part that often gives you the
biggest clue to what the word means).
Not all words contain all three word parts. Some roots stand alone. Some words have
only roots and prefixes. Some have only roots and suffixes. Some have all three parts.
And some are really just compound words made up of two or more other words.
Here are some common Greek and Latin word
roots:
aqua (water)
mob (move)
aud (hear)
photo (light)
bibl (book)
phon (sound)
bio (life)
psych (mind)
chron (time)
retro (backward)
cert (to trust)
sol (sun)
derm (skin)
stell (star)
ego (I)
thermo (heat)
Now here are some common prefixes:
ab (away from)
epi (on or upon)
ad (towards or
near)
infra (below)
auto (self)
macro (long, large)
aero (air)
micro (small)
anti (against)
pan (every, all)
ante (before)
para (along the side
of)
bi (two)
peri (around, about,
near)
ben (good, well)
psuedo (false,
counterfeit)
con (against)
syn (with, together,
joined)
deca (ten)
trans (across)
Let’s see what happens when you put a prefix and a root together, for example the
prefix “epi” with the root “derm.” You get the word “epidermis” which means the
protective outer layer of your skin (“epi” means “on” and “derm” means “skin”). Or the
word “infrastructure” which means “the structure below” or “the basic facilities needed
for the functioning of a system.”
Suffixes
Most words in English are made up of roots and suffixes. But suffixes are pretty
complicated, since they can be used in four different ways: to make
nouns, to make adjectives, to make verbs or to make adverbs.
Strictly speaking, suffixes are word parts that cannot stand alone. But
over time, some actual words have come to be used as suffixes. Two
examples are the words “meter” (which means measure) and “graph”
(which means write). Put at the end of the roots for “heat,” “ sound” and “light,” we get
“thermometer” (heat meter), “phonograph” (sound writer) and “photograph” (light writer).
True suffixes, however, really can’t stand alone. They need to be combined with roots.
A good example would be the suffix “logy” which means “the study of” and the suffix “ist”
which means “one who studies.” Go back to the roots list and find the roots “bio” (life)
and “psych” (mind). Put the roots and suffixes together and you’ll see that “biology”
means “the study of life” while a “biologist” is “one who studies life.” “Psychology”
means “the study of the mind” while a “psychologist” is “one who studies the mind.”
Another common suffix is “ous” which means “full of.” So the word “grievous” means
“full of grief” and the word “nauseous” means “full of nausea.” You can probably think of
some other examples of your own.
Now if you think that all our words and word parts
come from Greek and Latin, you’re wrong. As we
learned in our last instruction, nearly half our words
have Anglo-Saxon (Old English) roots. Here are a
few of them:
Root
Root Meaning
Today’s
Words
ber
carry
bear, berth,
borne, burden
brew
ferment
brew, brewery,
bread
dear
valued
dear, early,
darling
drink
swallow
drink, drank,
drunk
hel
sanctuary
Hell, hellish,
helmet, hall,
place of
protection
kno-
skill
know,
knowledge,
knew
lik-
similar, to be
like, liken,
pleased with
likeness, likely
spell
recite
spell, spelling,
gospel
swer-
swear,
proclaim
answer,
forswear,
swear, sworn
tru-
faithful
truth, true,
troth,
betrothed, truly
ward
guard, protect ward,
wardrobe,
homeward,
warden