2.4 Roots That Built English — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read twelve ordinary Greek words and recognise each as the root of eight or more English ones. Work out an unfamiliar English word from its Greek parts, using the prefixes of 2.3 and the endings of 2.2. See that the roots are not learned vocabulary in Greek: they are the everyday words for friend, time, light, city and life. Read eight sentences in which the roots appear as plain words. Prerequisites : 2.3 — the prefixes. Read 2.3 Cognates first if you have not. What you already know This is the lesson where the volume pays. You have the endings and you have the prefixes; what goes between them are roots, and the twelve below account for something on the order of a hundred English words — most of which you already use, and none of which you will have to learn in Greek, because they are the same words. The point to hold on to is the one the table makes by itself: these are not technical terms in Greek. The root behind philosophy and philanthropy is the ordinary Greek word for a friend, used exactly as English uses friend . The root behind chronology is the ordinary word for time, the one in what time is it . English borrowed the everyday vocabulary of Greek and made it learned; in Greek it stayed everyday. The rule Greek word Meaning Eight English words γράφω — gráfo write graphic · paragraph · autograph · telegraph · biography · calligraphy · seismograph · epigraph λόγος — lógos word, account, reason logic · dialogue · prologue · catalogue · analogy · eulogy · apology · monologue φίλος — fílos friend, loving philosophy · philanthropy · bibliophile · philharmonic · philology · Anglophile · paedophile · philately κράτος — krátos power, state democracy · autocrat · bureaucrat · aristocracy · theocracy · plutocracy · meritocracy · technocrat φωνή — foní sound, voice telephone · symphony · microphone · phonetics · megaphone · cacophony · euphony · homophone μορφή — morfí form, shape metamorphosis · amorphous · morphology · anthropomorphic · polymorphous · morpheme · isomorphic · dimorphism χρόνος — chrónos time chronology · anachronism · synchronise · chronic · chronicle · chronometer · diachronic · crony γη — gi earth geography · geology · geometry · geothermal · geopolitics · apogee · perigee · georgic ζωή — zoí life zoology · zodiac · protozoa · zoophyte · azoic · epizootic · zoolatry · zoetrope φως — fos light photograph · photon · photosynthesis · photogenic · phosphorus · photometer · telephoto · photophobia άνθρωπος — ánthropos human being anthropology · philanthropy · misanthrope · anthropomorphic · anthropoid · palaeoanthropology · anthropocentric · lycanthrope πόλη — póli city metropolis · politics · police · policy · cosmopolitan · necropolis · acropolis · megalopolis Read down the third column and notice how many of those English words you would have been unable to define precisely ten minutes ago, and can now build from the parts: cacophony is bad sound, isomorphic is same-shaped, diachronic is through-time, apogee is the point away from the earth. A word about the shape of the roots. The table gives each one as a modern Greek word, because that is what you will meet and what you can look up; but English took the root rather than the word, and the root is what is left when the Greek ending comes off. So the word for a friend ends in the masculine ending you will learn in the grammar volume, and English kept only the part in front of it. When you match an English word to a Greek one, match the front of the Greek word and ignore its ending — the ending is grammar, not meaning. Two of the twelve have shifted enough to mention. The root for word also came to mean reason and then account , which is why it produces both dialogue and logic and apology — three English words that feel unrelated and are one Greek word. And the root for power means the state as well as strength, so the Greek word for a country and the English suffix in democracy are the same thing: what holds power. Putting the three lessons together You now have prefixes, roots and endings, which is the whole machine. Take the English word anthropomorphic : root human , root form , ending for an adjective — having human form. Or philanthropy : loving plus human being . Or metamorphosis : change of plus form plus an ending for the process. And the same machine runs in Greek. A Greek newspaper word you have not met will often be three pieces you have, and Greek builds new ones the way English builds new ones out of Latin — constantly, and without asking anyone's permission. That is why a Greek dictionary contains words that no dictionary of any other language contains and yet an English speaker can read at sight. Finally, a warning about the direction of the debt, because it is easy to over-read. English owes Greek a great deal of its learned vocabulary and almost none of its everyday vocabulary: the words for house , water , bread , go , have and say are Germanic and have nothing to do with Greek. So the free vocabulary this volume hands you is concentrated in one register. It will carry you through a scientific abstract and leave you stranded in a kitchen, which is exactly why the volumes that follow spend their time on the kitchen. Read it aloud Eight sentences, each with one of the roots in its plain, ordinary form. Greek English The root in it Γράφω ποιήματα. [1] I write poems. the root for writing, as an ordinary verb Η αγάπη πονάει. [2] Love hurts. love — the root behind every English word in phil- Το νερό είναι ζωή. [3] Water is life. life: the root of biology , used as an ordinary noun Είμαι άνθρωπος. [4] I am a man. the human being: the root of anthropology Μένω στην πόλη. [5] I'm living in the city. the city: the root that ends metropolis Ο ήλιος λάμπει για όλους. [6] The sun shines for everyone. the sun, and the root that begins heliocentric Αυτό είναι δημοκρατία, νομίζω. [7] This is democracy, I think. power, in the word for democracy Ο χρόνος είναι χρήμα. [8] Time is money. time — th