Lesson II - Part 2
Basic English Morphology - Handout
Where do we find Greek and Latin roots in English? Everywhere!
Government, Law & the Military
We owe a great debt to the Greek model of democratic government and to the Roman model of a republic. Many English legal and military terms are from Latin.
Greek – democracy, hegemony, theocracy, autocrat, plutocrat, oligarch, kleptocracy
Latin – politics, legislature, legal, republic, congress, senate, representative, fascism, public, martial, encampment, capitol
Medicine: Most medical terms in English are from Greek.
Greek -cardiology, pathology, pharmacology, hemodynamics, caduceus, Hippocratic, stethoscope, thermometer, pulmonology, bronchitis, trachea, hypodermic, epidermis
Latin – femur, cerebrum, humerous, disease,
Math & Engineering
Greek – geometry, protractor, polygon, diameter, radius, algorithm, logarithm, graph, dynamics
Latin – triangle, circle, volume, sum, subtract, calculus, aqueduct, ductile, conduct, function
The Arts
Greek – theater, drama, comedy, humor, tragedy, poetry, meter, metaphor, parody, pathos, pathetic, epigram, epitaph,
Latin – verse, farce, simile, satire, depiction,
Philosophy & Science
Greek – philosophy, physics, metaphysics, agnostic, atheist, geology, meteor, pedagogy, didactic, photosynthesis,
Latin – religion, astronomy, canine, feline, bovine,
Many scientific genus and species names are from Greek and Latin.
Religion & Mythology
The Christian Bible was written in Greek and then translated into Latin. Many religious terms from Greek and Latin came into English through its exposure to Christianity.
Greek – prophet, catechism, synagogue, cathedral, theology, christen
Latin – religion, names of the months