Old school vocabulary hacks

Having a perfect grasp of English and its expansive vocabulary is an achievement that many can only dream of, especially for us copywriters. Many a time, people will come across uncommon or even obscure words – like narcolepsy or fructivorous – and they will instinctively look to us for definitions. While only certain individuals have the mental forte to become walking dictionaries, what if we were to tell you that there are little tricks that you can use to deduce definitions – more specifically, by looking at the roots of the word. If you’ve ever wondered about the etymology of English and how our everyday vocabulary came to be, read on!

It’s not all Greek…
Historians believe that proto-English (Old English) first began around in the 5th century when three Germanic tribes: the Jutes, Saxons and Angles crossed into the North Sea and invaded the region that we know today as the British Isles. The native inhabitants at the time primarily spoke Celtic, which later evolved into Anglo-Saxon (or Old English) during the 11th century as populations mixed, evolved and developed sentence structure. 

While 1500 years may seem like an eternity ago, much of the English vocabulary has even older roots. How old, you ask? Try 800 BC and beyond – the era when ancient Greece was in its prime and the great epic poet Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Given the diverse demographical influences during the infancy of Old English, it’s not surprising that the vocabulary contains an amalgamation of various dialects and languages – Greek being a chief component! Come to think of it, some of our alphabet is derived from Greek letters as well, like alpha α and beta β being converted into the English equivalent of a and b.

Even in modern English, Caroline Taggart’s book A Classical Education: The Stuff You Wish You’d Been Taught at School points out just how many words of our everyday words can be traced back to ancient roots. 

Consider “democracy” – a word that gets thrown around a lot by politicians, newspapers and the Internet on a daily basis. The word “democracy” can be broken down into two Greek terms: demos and kratos, which means people and rule, respectively. Put them together and you have the “people’s rule”. It’s interesting to see how the definition of the word hasn’t changed much despite transcending the language barrier!

When identifying Greek roots, it helps to think of each element as a prefix or suffix. Since demos acts like a prefix, and assuming that’s the only bit of Greek we know, it’d be a fair assumption to consider other words beginning with “demo” to also be related to people.  

How about “demography”? The “suffix” -graphy in Greek is graphia, which means the study of – put it all together and we have the study of people. How about “demophile”? -phile is translated from philos in Greek, which means dear or beloved – meaning someone who is a demophile is someone who is loved by the crowd.  

Unfortunately, this isn’t a fool proof line of thinking though. Some words that contain demo have nothing to do with people – like “demolition” or “demon” – instead, these words have roots that aren’t even Greek (it’s Latin for dēmōlītiō and daímōn)! The best way to identify words of Greek origins is to look at both the prefixes and suffixes of a word. Here are a few common ones:

Prefixes	Meaning	Examples
Anti-	(anti or ant) to be against, opposite	Antihero, antifreeze, antonym
Auto-	(auto) to do by the self	Autonomy, automobile, automatic
Bio-	(bíos) of life	Biology, biotech, biofuel
Geo-	(geō) of the earth	Geology, geography, geopolitics
Mono-	(mónos) alone, single, only	Monogamy, monorail, monotone
Neo-	(néos) new, young	Neophyte, neoclassical, neophilia
Tele-	(têle) at a distance, far away	Telephone, telescope, telemarketing
Pro-	(pró) before, in front of	Provide, prohibit, profess

Suffixes	Meaning	Examples
-nomy	(nomos) rules, laws or knowledge about a body or field	Economy, taxonomy, astronomy
-graph	(graphō) to scratch, scrape	Monograph, phonograph, photograph
-ism	(ismós) taking side with	Activism, realism, altruism
-logue	(logos) one who speaks in a certain manner	Dialogue, monologue, epilogue
-logy	(logía) the study of	Theology, ecology, geology
-metre	(métron) measure, rule, weight	Kilometre, telemetre, audiometre
-phobe	(phóbos) the fear or dislike of	Xenophobe, homophobe, claustrophobe
-phone	(phōnḗ) sound	Homophone, saxophone, speakerphone

But maybe it’s Latin
You can’t talk about the etymology of English without also mentioning Latin. Although ancient Greek is historically older than Latin, dictionary.com believes over 60 percent of English stems from either Greek or Latin – or an astonishing 90 percent when it’s a term involving science and technology. 

So if you see a word that doesn’t have any identifiable Greek elements in it, then there’s a decent chance that it’s got some Latin in it! Unlike Greek, not all Latin roots are mutually exclusive as prefixes or suffixes. Take the Latin root semtire or sensus, which when converted to English becomes “sen” and means to feel. “Sen” can work as a prefix like with “sensitive” or “sensible”, but also as a suffix like “assent” or “resent”.

Here are some common Latin roots to help you get started:

Root	Meaning	Examples
Fund	(fundāre or fundus) to found; the bottom or foundation	Fundamental, foundation, funding
Gen	(genitus) to birth or bring to life	Generate, progeny, engender
Ben	(bene) good, well	Benefit, benevolent, benign
Inter	(Inter) among, between	Internet, international, intercommunity
Intra	(Intra) inside, within	Intranet, intravascular, intramural
Manu	(manus) hand	Manufacture, manual, manipulate
Luc	(lūx) bright; light	Lucent, lucid, translucent
Port	(portare) to carry	Export, import, support
Hab or Hib	(habere) to have	Ability, habilitate, exhibit
Dict	(dictus) to say or speak	Dictate, contradict, verdict

“Not only does half our language derive from Latin, but there are also still many Latin expressions in common use,” writes Taggart. Expressions like ad hoc, alibi or vice versa are lifted straight out of Latin and plopped into English – proving just how much influence Greek and Latin had as progenitors of modern English. 

There’s no denying that the English vocabulary is an absolute hodgepodge of foreign languages. Although the mass availability of dictionaries has trivialised etymology, being able to deduce a definition just by looking at a word’s roots is an artform… not to mention very handy when the Internet is out!