Since So Much of Our Vocabulary Comes from Latin Roots, It S a Good Idea to Know Them

Roots Rules

Since so much of our vocabulary comes from Latin roots, it’s a good idea to know them. Then you can usually figure out words even when you haven’t ever encountered them before. So, let’s try it.

I’m giving you a monster list of Latin Roots and some of our words that stem from those roots. Your job is to know the list – that’s right, the entire list! While this may seem daunting at first, over time you’ll start to realize that your mind has an incredible capacity for this stuff. And then you’ll start to realize that you can think of words that have these roots, and they’re words I don’t even have on the list. That’s when it’ll get really fun.

So, start studying the list. Read the entire list and identify the ones you know already (that includes the English words in the right-hand column that stem from the roots). Then work on the ones you don’t know. Go to a dictionary. Write in the margins. Create flash cards. Get quizzed by your friends and family. Talk to doctors and lawyers and scientists – almost all of their important words have Latin roots.

Then get ready to show what you know in our “Public Displays of Latin-fection” (i.e. – id est – quizzes)

● We’ll try to quiz every other week or so

● The first quiz will be practice, and it will not count

● Subsequent quizzes will increase in point values (some worth 10 pts, some worth 20, etc. – et cetera – and so forth), with the last one being a full-blown test (100 pts.)

● On quiz day, whoever's number comes up is responsible for the next answer. From the list of randomly chosen roots, the next answer is either 1) the definition of the root or 2-6) one of at least five English words containing the root, along with the connection between the word and root.

● On the list, there are five words given for each root, but you’re not limited to those five as long as you can show the connection. If you give a correct answer, you get 1 point. If yougive an incorrect answer, you get a zero. At the end of the day, I total the number you had correct, divide it by your total responses, and you earn that percentage of the quiz points (e.g. – exemplia gratia – for example, if Biff gets 3 right and 2 wrong, he scores3/5=60%=6 pts. If he gets 15 out of 15, he gets 15/15=100%=10 pts.

● If someone gets one wrong, the next person is responsible for the same info. If five people miss a particular question, the question is offered to the room as a “Latin Leftover”. The “Leftover” round is your chance to answerif you were not chosen randomly. The classroom will be divided into thirds to determine which group will have the first opportunity to answer. We’ll use paper/rock/scissors between representatives of the three rows to determine 1st,2nd, and 3rd.

There’s another opportunity for a “Leftover” round: once we have 5 related words (or however many were on the sheet), you have a chance to add extra related words. We’ll go around the room once, and anyone who can add a word gets a point.

Anyone who guesses and misses on the “leftover” round doesn't miss a point, so it's a risk-free!

● If in the course of a game you miss and are then called on again for the same question, you are not assessed a second 0, but you could earn a point if you've thought of a correct answer. Your second miss on a question also does not count toward the five misses needed to trigger a “Leftover” round.

● As far as related words go, we don't accept close forms of a previously stated word, so either obstetrics or obstetrician or obstetricians would be acceptable, but only one of them—the other two would be considered a form of whichever one was first stated.

Semper Ubi Sub Ubi