This is the very first photocopy you ever receive from etymology lessons. On each paper you will be able to find, the paper number and its date so that you can more easily keep tracks of these weekly photocopies.

Hold your pens ready; there might be many other words you would not like to miss -- words not included in the weekly photocopies.

Each week you will be able to find different sections under the titles:

• Prefixes
• Roots
• Suffixes
• Word Examples
• Quotes & Others + Word Of The Week
• What's Next?

Now we are going to get started with the first section.

PREFIXES

1. tele-,

a combining form meaning "distant," esp. "transmission over a distance," used in the formation of compound words: telegraph.

[comb. form repr. Gk têle far, akin to télos end]

ROOTS

1. vertere [Latin]

a latin verb meaning "to turn", as in:

 

di.vert: to turn aside or from a path or course; deflect

a.vert: to turn away or aside: to avert one's eyes

in.vert: to turn upside down, to turn inside out

re.vert: to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition etc.

 

versus [past participle of vertere]

 

as in:

 

u.ni.verse: single turning; that which turns as a whole

[1325–75; ME < OF univers < L %niversum, n. use of neut. of %niversus entire, all, lit., turned into one, equiv. to %ni- UNI- + versus (ptp. of vertere to turn)]

SUFFIXES

1. -tomy [Greek]

a combining form meaning "cutting, incision" of an organ, "excision" of an object, as specified by the initial element (appendectomy; lithotomy); also occurring in abstract nouns corresponding to adjectives ending in -tomous (dichotomy).

WORD EXAMPLES

1. atom: a not having + tom cutting = uncut, undivided [1350--1400]
2. amateur:

   [1775–85; < F, MF < L am!tor lover, equiv. to am!- (s. of am!re to love) + -tor -TOR, replaced by F -teur (< L -t$r-, obl. s. of -tor); see -EUR]

3. planet:

   [1250–1300; ME planete (< OF planète) < LL plan"ta, plan"t"s (found only in pl. plan"tae) < Gk (astéres) plan£tai lit., wandering (stars)]

4. disaster: not going well with the stars

   [1585–95; < MF desastre < It disastro, equiv. to dis- DIS-1 + astro star < L astrum < Gk ástron]

5. offer: ob against + fer bring = to bring against, to lay before
6. compose: co(m)- together + pose put = to put together
7. utopia:

   [< NL (1516) < Gk ou not + tóp(os) a place + -ia -Y3]

QUOTES & OTHERS

• What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. - Shakespeare

What it feels does matter! Not what name it bears...

• ad infinitum

Latin for "to infinity"; endlessly, without limit

• MUSIC word of the week

The art of the Muse

[1200–50; ME musike < L m%sica < Gk mousik6 (téchn") (the art) of the Muse, fem. of mousikós, equiv. to Moûs(a) MUSE + -ikos -IC]

WHAT'S NEXT?

Next week you will find:

1. Etymology of day names - "What do they really mean?"
2. Etymology of month names - "An error in order?"
3. Latin and Greek prepositional prefixes
4. A new word of the week, for the new week