Definitions of English Root Words
Studying the roots of English can tell us much about the idiosyncrasies of our language. The word "idiosyncrasy," for instance, first appeared in English toward the beginning of the 17th century. The Oxford English Dictionary cites an example from the pen of F. Herring in 1604: "The idiosygcrasye or particular Natures (as Galen calleth them) are vnknown." The Greek root "krasis" (meaning "mixture") in combination with the two prefixes "idios" ("private") and "sun" ("with") gestures to the word's essential meaning: idiosyncrasies are peculiar mixtures of temperament unique to a person, group or class. With a little etymological prying, the meaning of strange Greek words like "idiosunkrasia" surfaces rather quickly.
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Early History
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Although English is an amalgam of many tongues, its roots can be traced back to Northern Germany in the first millennium. The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes invaded "Angle-land" after the fall of Rome in the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon assimilated many elements of Old Norse from Viking invaders in the 9th century. With the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066 came a French speaking Anglo-Norman kingdom. The stamp of Francophone influence on English was particularly marked in Middle English, a period spanning 1100 to 1450 (see Resources).
Renaissance
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Scholarly activity during the 16th and 17th centuries introduced a host of neologisms into the language. Discoveries in science, medicine, philosophy, astronomy, and mathematics called for the naming of diverse new phenomena. The predominance of Latin during this period as the authoritative language for religious and legal discourse reinforced the stereotype that it was also the proper medium for "learned" exchange.
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Effects
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Rather than drawing on English's Anglo-Saxon heritage scholars, scientists, humanists, and clergy drew from the nomenclature of Greek and Latin to give their discoveries an air of learning and technical precision. To this day, the terminology in most branches of scientific discourse remains heavily influenced by Greek and Latin roots (see Resources).
Orwell's Warning
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In "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell famously derides writers of modern English prose for their alleged bad habits. Words with Greek and Latin roots come under heavy fire. At best they are pretentious, Orwell argues, and at worst complicit with vagueness, propaganda, and the euphemisms of war: "Words like phenomenon, element, individual (as noun), objective, categorical, effective, virtual, basic, primary, promote, constitute, exhibit, exploit, utilize, eliminate, liquidate, are used to dress up a simple statement and give an air of scientific impartiality to biased judgements. Adjectives like epoch-making, epic, historic, unforgettable, triumphant, age-old, inevitable, inexorable, veritable, are used to dignify the sordid process of international politics..." (see References).
Prevention/Solution
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Orwell admired the apparent simplicity in the Saxon vernacular, as compared to the more abstract concepts smuggled into English by Greek and Latinate imports. Where the Saxons "ask" the Latins "inquire"; when "help" is wanted, the Latins "assist"; when Saxons "build" and "speak," Latins "construct" and "converse"; "old" things "rot" for the Saxons; in the Roman world, "ancient" things would "putrefy." To Orwell's mind, brevity, precision and sincerity were not only necessary for good prose style, but the essence of clear thinking.
Significance
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Despite Orwell's distaste for Latinate polysyllables and foreign hand-me-downs, English speakers have generated thousands of new words and phrases by drawing on root words and borrowed terms from different languages. The roots "duc/duct" (meaning "to lead" or "to pull"), for example, have given us: produce, abduct, product, transducer, viaduct, aqueduct, induct, deduct, reduce, induce. A common pairing like "Man/manu" (signifying "hand," "make") generates a similar list of useful words: manual, manage, manufacture, manacle, manicure, manifest, maneuver, emancipate, management (see Resources).
Benefits
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The addition of thousands of such roots, borrowed words, neologisms, and foreign phrases has simultaneously deepened but encumbered a lexicon with well over half a million words in circulation.
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