The roots tag has no wiki summary.
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1answer
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Justice as a title … where does it come from?
In the US supreme court judges, among others, are called "justice [name]". Where is this use rooted?
Obviously the term comes from Latin "justitia" originally, but that means justice as in the the ...
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4answers
402 views
Pterodactyl and Archeopteryx: Silent P vs Voiced P
These words share the Greek root πτέρυξ (pteryx), meaning feather/wing, but the P in pterodactyl is silent (in the initial position), while the P in archeopteryx (in the middle of the word) is voiced.
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4answers
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Usage of the word “vi”
In the game League of Legends, the character Vi is known for her violent, aggressive, fight-loving nature, and isn't shy about expressing it. When asked what her name is short for, she has a ...
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1answer
165 views
Why does the word “inadvertently” mean “not knowingly”?
The root is advertently. That means “knowingly”. Fair enough. The root of advertently is advertent. That means “attention”. Hmmm … quite close. The root of advertent is advert, which means ...
5
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1answer
83 views
Shared root to “bobech”, “bobbin” and “bobby”?
Is there a shared etymological root to the following words?
Bobech (glass collar on a candle)
Bobbin (in a sewing machine)
Bobby [pin] (woman's hair pin)
I just learned the word bobech last ...
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2answers
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The etymology of “religion” comes from “legere” meaning to read + “re” meaning again. Or does it? (more inside) [closed]
The etymology of religion as mentioned in the title comes from Etymonline.
And that's very interesting. It makes sense too.
My question is, how do the phrases, "to read", "to choose", "to gather", ...
6
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3answers
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Why A is pronounced differently in “opacity” and “opaque”
When I look at pronunciation guides for opacity and opaque I see the following:
opaque: oh-peyk (a hard A)
opacity: oh-pas-i-tee (a soft A)
Since their root seems to be the Latin opācus, ...
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2answers
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Plural of “abacus”
A colleague and I were having a discussion as to the proper plural form of abacus. I believe the plural would be abacuses and he feels that the proper form would be abaci. I believe that abacuses is ...
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2answers
214 views
Where is the root morpheme in Modern English evacuate and vacuum?
They both are cognates (it can be easily proved by many etymological sources). The question is : Is it possible to consider VAC as a common root for evacuate and vacuum (we may go further - vacation, ...
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2answers
558 views
Common root of “practice,” “practical,” and “practicum”
When someone practices something, they do it often/as a habit. When someone says something is practical, they usually mean it is pragmatic/sensible/applicable, yet not necessarily practiced. And my ...
8
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3answers
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What do I call a word with roots from multiple languages?
As best as I can tell, a good example is sociopath:
sociopath — from socio- on model of psychopath
socio- — combining form of [Latin] socius
pathos — from [Greek] ...
6
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2answers
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What are words called that share the same root?
What do you call words that share the same root (e.g., "network", "networks", "networking"). Also, does the shortest one of them have a specific name (e.g., "network")?
