On Relationships

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In the previous blog, we came across the following root-words for different people in the family. Lets look at them a little more closely.


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Patris - Father
Matri - Mother
Frater- Brother
Soror - Sister
Uxor- Wife




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Based on the above, we can understand the reason for the words down below. You will see why some words we come across in english language are what they are.


On father (Patris)

Patron - Father; the one like a father
Paternal - fatherly; of the father
Paternity - related to fatherhood
Patricide - killing one's father


On mother (matron)

Matron - mother; the one like a mother; a mature married woman; a motherly-lady incharge of nurses in a hospital; or a women who is the warden/wardress for female prisoners.
Maternal - motherly; of the mother
Maternity - related to motherhood
Matricide - Killing one's mother

Matrimony : Marraige (getting a mother/lady to run your family)


On sister (soror)

sororal - sisterly
Sorority - sisterhood, a society or a club of women or girls, especially in a college.
Sororicide - killing one's sister


On brother (frater)

Fraternal - brotherly, friendly
Fraternity - brotherhood, an organization of male students, a body of men associated by common interest, a college men's society


On Wife (uxor)

Uxorial - pertaining to wife; wifely
Uxoricide - killing of one's wife
Uxorious - doting upon, foolishly fond of, or affectionately submissive toward one's wife.




An Extra bit on Marraige (Maritus)

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Marital : related to married people
Marital status : Status of whether one is married or not.
Marital bliss : The wonderful joy of being married
Marital ties : The relationships that form due to marraige, like spouses, in-laws etc.
Marital discord - A distubance or disagreement between the married people (husband and wife)
Extra-marital affair : Even-though one is married, his/her association with another person.

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Mariticide - killing of a husband; also used to mean killing of a spouse..

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On Killing

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You may be arrested these days if you attempt suicide.

But you 'will' be arrested if you commit homicide.

But by using Piff-Paff, Raid, or Mortein many people regularly commit pesticide. Luckily there is no law against that. In fact, farmers in many countries are supplied with pesticides so that they can use them to kill those insects (or pests) in their farms.

And we all know that the toothpaste contains germicide, to kill the germs.

So, Now, I'm sure you now know what I am getting at. The major root for all these words is 'cide'. Which means 'to kill'

Sui - self (So, to kill one's self is Suicide)
Homos - a person ( So, to kill a person is Homicide)
Pest - insect (So, to kill an insect is 'pesticide'. Pesticide is also the stuff used to kill pests)
Germ - germ (So, to kill germs is 'germicide'. and Germicide is also the stuff used to kill them)

Now, using cide as a suffix, at the end of the word, you can easily guess what killing the following persons would mean.

Patris - Father

Matron - Mother

Frater- Brother

Soror - Sister

Uxor- Wife

Maritus - Husband

Reg/Rex - King/Royalty

Infant - a baby

genos - a race

(Answers below this passage)

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Fathers, Mothers and Money

Patron, paternal, paternity, patriarch, patronize, Padre are all related to the root word pater or patris which means father.

Similarly, matron, maternal, maternity, matriarch are derivatives from the root word mater or matris which meant mother.

Please note that Patrimony ( money inherited from the father) is also a combination of patris and money ('money' comes from Roman goddess Juno Moneta who is believed to guard the Temples of Finance).

Alimony (alimo means 'for nourishment' or 'for sustenance'), therefore, means money given for nourishment or sustenance. Usually given to a divorced wife by the former husband until she can nourish or sustain herself.

Matrimony which means marriage, however, has no relation to money but has the meaning of getting a mother to run a family.

An extra bit

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Parsimony - which means 'stinginess' or 'extreme frugality' or 'miserly' - comes from parsimonia - to spare, and mony of course, from the Roman goddess Moneta.

So, if someone calls you a parsimonious person, he is not complimenting you, but calling you a miser, because you are too careful in spending money.

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Answers:

Patris - Father - Patricide
Matron - Mother - Matricide
Frater- Brother - Fratricide
Soror - Sister - Sororicide
Uxor- Wife - Uxoricide
Maritus - Husband - mariticide
Reg/Rex - King/Royalty - Regicide
Infant - Baby - Infanticide
genos - Race - Genocide

On Life 2

Last time, we spoke about some words that had the root-word ‘life’.

Vita (life) and viva (to live) are Latin roots for some other words used in English.

So, lets look at a few more on the same topic.

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Vital – essential to life; of great importance; very important

Eg: Lungs in our chest perform the vital function of keeping us alive.

Vitality - full of life and energy. Physical or mental vigour or energy.

Eg : We can see from the way the young man has been excitedly working for the last three days that he is brimming with vitality.

Revitalize – to give life again. (re- is a prefix to mean ‘give again’ and vita being ‘ life’, so it is in the same lines as revive, reenergize, redo, reaffirm.

Eg: The students were finding the classes boring. But the teacher revitalized the classes by bringing the test tubes and beakers into the classroom and showing how experiments were conducted.

Devitalize – to take away life. (de – is a prefix to mean ‘to take away.’ Or negative. Or to mean ‘undo.’ Therefore, decompose, defrost, decode are the negatives of compose, frost and code.

Eg: The war has devitalized the economy.



Vitamin – an important element for life; a nutritional element for helping life

Eg: Good eyesight requires us to have Vitamin A which is available from carrots. And strong bones need Vitamin D, that is in sunlight and codliver oil.



French Life

English also uses many French phrases, also related life as viva is 'life' in French too.

Bon vivant – (pronounced BON Vee VONH, with NH as a muted nasal sound) – means

- ‘a good live-er’

- ‘a person who lives a great life’

- ‘a person who lives luxuriously with rich food, good drinks, expensive theatre parties etc'.

Eg: Can’t you see that man’s expensive suit? And that huge limousine out of which he is getting out? With those two beautiful girls holding on to his two elbows? And the door man of the five-star hotel opening the door for him? He seems to be a bon vivant!

Joie de vivre – (pronounced something like Zhwah’ de VEEV, with Zh like ‘s’ in pleasure) – means the ‘joy of living’

Eg: People who possess joie de vivre are never depressed, or moody or bored, but will make everyone happy with their vivacity.



An Extra Bit

vital statistics : It means all the important data - such as a country’s economic growth rate, birthrate, death rate, GDP (Gross domestic Product), Population figures or literacy rate etc.

vital statistics : Now, its also informally used to mean the measurements of a women’s bust, waist and hips.

Often called in its shortform, vital-stats.

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On Life 1

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They are very friendly people. Very easy to get along with. The type of people whom you would like to invite home for dinner or drinks. Especially because they like words and jokes but they also like eating, drinking and having a good time with friends. Which is why they seem so wonderful to be with.

But who are they?

They are a wonderful couple. Very sociable and very affable. A convivial couple.

Now, convivial is the word we are starting with, as we begin our journey of word-building.

Vivo is a Latin word, a verb, that means 'to live together' and vita, its noun form, means ''life'. That is why during the Roman times, people met at a convivium which meant a feast or a banquet. A place where people meet for socializing, eating and drinking and getting to know one another. Place to enjoy life together. Networking of the yore.

(Anyway, you must be wondering, is this the 'Latin' word building or 'English' word building?!

So, I'll get back to English. But not without first telling you that many English words are actually derivatives from Greek or Latin languages. The roots of some words are even in French and some other European languages. Because they existed much before English. So, we'll meet many of these words as we go along).

In English now, therefore, conviviality means 'a jovial nature', or 'a boisterous celebration or partying'. Example : I enjoyed last-night's dinner at my friend's house because it was not boring. It had a convivial atmosphere.

Now, lets look at some words that came out from vivo and vita

Vivacious - Full of joy of living; animated; peppy

Eg: She was a vivacious girl. She was always bubbly and excited making everyone around feel happy. Everyone admired her vivacity.

Vivid - Possessing the freshness of life; strong; sharp ;clear

Eg: With his good communication skills, he explained his trip to Sharm Al Shiekh, so vividly that we were able to imagine the scenery in our minds.



Revive - to bring back to life

Eg: He fell down at the accident site, completely unconscious. But the paramedics, who arrived by the ambulance, were able to revive him by the time they reached the hospital.


Revival - bringing back to life

Eg: In 2007 and ahead, no one expects a fashion-revival of the 1970s' bell bottom-trousers, and large-collared shirts! But who knows?!


An extra bit:

Viviparous means 'producing live babies'. For example human beings and most mammals are viviparous

Oviparous means 'producing babies from eggs'. Most fish, fowl and other forms of life are oviparous.

We see therefore that ovum means egg, and oval and ovoid are egg-shaped, ovulate is to release eggs, and ovary is where eggs are.


Did you know?


Did you know that 'love' comes from 'ovum'??

No. No. Its not the normal love you are thinking about. But its the 'love' they say in sports like tennis or badminton.

That is because ovum means oeuf in french. 'The Egg' is L'oeuf. It is pronounced LERF.

So, when they say, "fifteen-love' or "love-all". They actually mean "fifteen-zero(egg)" or "zero(egg) -all".

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Wonder of Words

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Children, we all know, begin learning by first associating words with objects.

Just recall how little babies start pointing out with their fingers, when you ask them to show, 'mommy', 'daddy' or even 'fan' or 'TV'. They do it because they are slowly learning the meanings of words. But these babies soon pick up amazing speed.

By their second and third year, they would have learnt a couple of hundreds of words.

By the time they are six, a thousand and odd words would be known to them. And since they would be going to school, they start absorbing even more words and their meanings. They may even begin learning words of another language.

Some psychologists have apparently found out that the learning of words is highest during childhood. And by the time one becomes an adult, he or she would know atleast know 25000 - 30000 words.

But strangely, the rate of learning of new words quickly decreases after that. Infact, it seems that some people do not even learn 10 new words an year!! Why?

This is mainly because we are no longer interested or curious about new words. We feel we know enough words to communicate. Or we are simply too busy to read and learn. Or we are simply lethargic.

So, dear friends, this attempt is to make us all look at the wonder of words. To become curious and interested about words, their origins, their roots, and their usage. I hope to make us all little students of words.

To learn in a fun way. A few words at a time.

I hope that by the 31st of December 2007, we would have added atleast 300 words to our vocabulary. [Ofcourse, not just mere words, but along with their correct meanings].

I hope to put together few words at a time, but you can comment and add and suggest as we go along.

I wish you all a Happy Journey, as we explore, discover and understand the wonder of words.

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