Thursday, December 30, 2004
All Greek to Me
I love learning the meanings of words, and a lot of modern words are of Greek origin. Knowing them and their roots can help make you smarter. Thus, without any further ado:
Prefixes:
apo- away from
cata- down
ortho- correct
hetero- other
homo- same
calli- beauty
a- not
iso- same
hyper- over
hypo- under
Thus:
orthodoxy- correct teaching
heterodoxy- other teaching
orthopraxy- correct practice
apostrophe- turn away from
catastrophe- downturn
calligraphy- beautiful writing
(It's my blog, and if I feel like listing Greek prefixes, I'm darn well going to do it! Also, note that, properly, the word "doctor" translates as "teacher," not "physician.")
I love learning the meanings of words, and a lot of modern words are of Greek origin. Knowing them and their roots can help make you smarter. Thus, without any further ado:
Prefixes:
apo- away from
cata- down
ortho- correct
hetero- other
homo- same
calli- beauty
a- not
iso- same
hyper- over
hypo- under
Thus:
orthodoxy- correct teaching
heterodoxy- other teaching
orthopraxy- correct practice
apostrophe- turn away from
catastrophe- downturn
calligraphy- beautiful writing
(It's my blog, and if I feel like listing Greek prefixes, I'm darn well going to do it! Also, note that, properly, the word "doctor" translates as "teacher," not "physician.")
