Culture · 6 pages · 12 min
Why Latin roots do not make a word Latin
A word built from Latin pieces can still be a modern English word with English grammar.
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From the opening
Latin roots do not make a word Latin, because a word belongs to the language in which people use it now, with that language's sounds and grammar. The pieces can be ancient while the word itself is a recent coinage. The opening covers old pieces can build a new word, television was never a Roman word, and english grammar decides membership.
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Inside
- Old pieces can build a new word
- Television was never a Roman word
- English grammar decides membership
- A real Latin phrase is still a quotation
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Modern coinages from classical combining forms
- Etymology distinguished from the language a word belongs to now