Root Words in English

ROOT WORD ORIGIN

-Published on 18th Feb 2023 by Oxford School of English-

Most of the English words originated from Latin or Greek language no wonder that makes it interesting. Modern English language has root words from other languages also, yet these two have the crown. By learning Greek and Latin root words, a student can easily learn around 60% of English vocabulary. Some of the benefits of learning root words are as under.

1. Extra information – While learning roots which are the origin of any particular words one tends to learn major historical events and culture.
2. Better understanding – Root words are considered the most meaningful part of the word and can be further divided.

For example, you know the word Friend’. Now, what about the words such as Friendly’, Befriend’, Friendliness, and Unfriendly’? Even if you don’t know the exact meaning, you can predict that all these words are somehow connected to Friend’. Now let’s dig a little deeper. Un-’ means something negative. So, that means Unfriendly’ must mean Not friendly’. What does Friendly’ mean then? Friend-like’? Yes! It means a person who is pleasant like a friend. 1. Facilitate learning – Leaning one root can help us to open doors to many. We can categorize a word list according to the root. Therefore, becoming familiar with the roots will naturally make reading and spelling easier. But studying word roots is really boring, right? NOT ANY MORE

1. Thei : Thei means god/religion Ist meaning follower Now adding different words

Theist meaning the one who believes in god

Atheist means one who doesn’t believe in god.

Monotheist mono+theist mono(only one) so monotheist means the one who believes in one god.

Polytheist Ploy means many so polytheists mean the one who believes in many gods.

Pantheist Pan means all over so a pantheist believes in all gods across all religions.

2. Logy : Logy means the study of something

Theology - Teho means god or religion so theology means the study of religion

Anthropology - Anthrop means human being so anthropology means the study of a human being.

Morphology - Morph means structure so morphology means the study of structures.

Anthropomorphism - Its antrop+morph+ism meaning is giving human structure to god.

Zoomorphism - Its zo+morph+ism means giving animal structure to god.

Amorpic - It’s a+morph means no particular structure.

3. Phobia : Phobia means fear or dislike

Zoophobia - zoo+phobia means fear of animal

Androphobia - Andro means boys/male so androphobia means the one who doesn’t like boys.

Gynophobia - Gyno means girl/woman so gynophobia means the one who doesn’t like girls

Pedophobia - Pedo means child so pedophobia is the one who doesn’t like children.

Demophobia - demo means people so demophobia means the one who fears public speaking.

Anthropophobia - anthro means human being so anthropophobia mean fear of human being or the one who doesn’t like the company of human being or in simple word aloof (living alone)

4. Cious : Cious means to do something

Loquacious - loquis means talking so loquacious means the one who talks a lot

Voracious - vora means eat so voracious means the one who eats a lot.

Avaricious - avari means greed so avaricious means greedy

Pugnacious - pug means fight so pugnacious means the one who fights a lot.

5. Cide : Cide means kill/ murder

Infanticide - infant+cide meaning to kill a child.

uxoricide - uxor means wife so uxoricide means A husband who murders his wife.

Mariticide - marit means husband so matricide means The murder of a husband by his wife.

Patricide - patri means father so patricide means A person who murders their father.

Matricide - matri means mother so matricide means A person who murders their mother.

Fratricide - frat means brother so fratricide means A person who murders their brother.

6. MIGR : Migr means move

Immigrant- a person who moves to a new country to settle

Migrant- a person who moves from place to place

Migration- the process of moving

7. PAN : All any everyone

Panacea- a cure for all diseases or problems

Panorama- an all-around view

Pantheism- the worship of all gods

Pandemic- affecting all

8. Tox : Tox means poison

Detoxification- the process of removing poison

Toxic- poisonous

Toxicology- the study of poisons

Intoxicated- influenced by drugs

9. Cracy : Cracy means Govt/System

Democracy - demo+cracy means govt of people

Autocracy - auto+cracy means dictatorship/kingship (when one person rules the whole government or system)

Theocracy - Theo+cracy means when the government is of religious people like a priest, bishops, etc.

Plutocracy - Pluto means wealthy so plutocracy means when the government is controlled by wealthy people like industrialists.

Oligocracy - Oligo means selected few so oligocracy means when a selected few runs the government.

Mobocracy - Mob means crowd so mobocracy means when the crowd takes over government or in other words lawlessness.

Monarchy - Monarc means top officials like a king so monarchy is the rule of a king.

Anarchy - means lawlessness it’s just similar to mobocracy.

Gerontocracy - geron means aged/ experienced so gerontocracy means when positions are determined by experience or age.

Meritocracy - merito means performance so meritocracy means when position are decided by performance

Cleptocracy - clepto means thief so cleptocracy means when the government is run by thieves.

Beaurocracy - beauro means top officials so beaurocracy means when the government is run by top officials.

Aristocracy - aristo means nobility so aristocracy means when the government is run by noble families.

10. Somnia : Somnia means sleepness

Insomnia means lack of sleep

Somniferous - ferrous means things causing something so somniferous are the things that cause sleep like pills etc.

Somnambulist - som+amb+ist here som means sleep ambu means walk so somnambulist means the one who walks while sleeping.

Ambulant - means things able to walk

Somniloquist - locust means talking so somniloquist means the one who talks while sleeping