The basic meaning of per- is ‘through’. If you perambulate the grounds of a stately home, you walk around or through them. The root here is ambul, from which English…

Jean Martinet was the Inspector-General of Infantry during the reign of King Louis XIV and a stricter, more fanatic drillmaster France had never seen. It was from this time that…

This prefix has two distinct meanings. First, it can mean ‘with’ or ‘together’, as in combine, compatriot, coexist, and cohere. But it was also used as an ‘intensifier’ to give…

The root fero is found also in somniferous, carrying, hearing, or bringing sleep. So a somniferous lecture is so dull and boring that it is sleep-inducing. Fero is combined with…

The ad- prefix is primarily a Latin preposition meaning ‘to, near, at’; it is distantly related to the English word at. Even in Latin it was much used as a…

The profession of the sociologist is sociology. Sociology is built on Latin socius, companion, plus logos, science, study. Socius is the source of such common words as associate, social, socialize,…

The basic meanings here are ‘roll, turn’. The bindweed plant gets its other name, convolvulus, from its winding and twisted growth. The ‘rolling’ or ‘turning back’ in words such as…

Latin verbum is word. A verb is the important word in a sentence; verbatim is word-for-word (a verbatim report). Verbal, ending in the adjectival suffix -al, may refer either to…