Take Words Down to Their Roots

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword. 

This Lesson, Like the previous one, wiLL heLp you buiLd word power by taking words apart. Roots are the buiLding bLocks of words, and knowing some common roots wiLL heLp you to gain vocabuLary fLuency with unfamiLiar words. 

The two most common sources for English words are Latin and Greek roots. You probably learned about these civilizations in school, so you know that Latin was the language spoken in ancient Rome more than 2,000 years ago. Latin spread throughout Europe and eventually developed, by about the seventeenth century, into modern languages spoken today, like English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. 

A SAMPLE LATIN ROOT AND ITS USE IN COMMON ENGLISH WORDS 

Look at some of the many English words that have been built from one Latin root. 

---