[ Vocabulary Building ]Unit 1

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Bell comes from the Latin word meaning "war".  Bellona was the little-known Roman goddess of war;  her husband, Mars, was the god of war.

antebellum 

bellicose

rebellion

 

PAC/PEAS is related to the Latin words for "agree" and "peace".  The Pacific Ocean -- that is, the "Peaceful Ocean" -- was named by Magellan because it seemed so calm after the storms near Cape Horn.  (He obviously never witnessed a Pacific hurricane.)

pacify

pacifist

pact

appease

 Appeasing usually involves giving something, whereas pacifying can refer to anything from stroking a baby to using armed force to stop an uprising.

HOSP/HOST comes from the Latin word hospes and its stem hospic- meaning both "host" and "guest".  Many words based on it came to English through French, which often dropped the -pi-, leaving host-.  Hospitality is what a good host or hostess offers to a guest.  A hospital was once a house for religious pilgrims and other travelers, or a home for the aged.

hostage

hospice

hostel

inhospitable

AM/IM comes from the Latin word amare, "to love".  Amiable means "friendly or good-natured", and amigo is Spanish for "friend".

amicalbe

enamored

inimical

paramour

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CRIM comes from the Latin for "fault or crime" or "accusation", and produces such English words as crime and criminal.

criminology

decriminalize

incriminate

recrimination

PROB/PROV comes from the Latin word for "prove or proof" and "honesty or integrity".  To prove a statement is to "make it honest", and probate court is where the genuineness of the wills of deceased people must be proved.

approbation

disprove

probity

reprobate

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GRAV comes from the Latin, meaning "heavy, weighty, serious".  Thus, a grave matter is serious and important.

gravid

gravitas

gravitate

gravity

Gravid implies weight and bulk, but actually describes a pregnant female even at an early stage of her pregnancy.  It has the related senses of inflation that results from any cause and that will lead to a change of some kind.  Thus, a writer may be gravid with ideas as she sits down to write; a speaker may make a gravid pause before announcing his remarkable findings; and a cloud may be gravid with rain.

LEV comes from the Latin adjective levis, meaning "light", and the verb levare, meaning "to raise or lighten".  Levitation is the magician's trick in which a body seems to rise into the air by itself.  And a lever is a bar used to lift something by means of leverage.

alleviate

elevate

leavening

levity

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Words from Mythology and History

cicerone

hector

hedonism

nestor

spartan

stentorian

stoic

sybaritic