[ Vocabulary Building ]Unit 2

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AG comes from the Latin word for "do, go, lead, drive".  An agenda is a list of things to be done.  An agent is usually someone who does things on behalf of another, just as an agency of an office that does business for others.

agitate

litigate

prodigal

synagogue

VEN/VENT comes from venire, the Latin verb meaning "come".  To intervene in a case or argument is to "come between" the two opponents.  An avenue is a street, or originally an access road by which to "come toward" something.  Groups "come together" at a convention. 

Advent

provenance

venturesome

venue

CAP/CEP/CIP comes from capere, the Latin verb meaning "take, seize".  Capture, which is what a captor does to a captive, has the same meaning.  Captivate once meant literally "capture", but now means only to capture mentally through charm or appeal.  In some other English words this root produces, its meaning is harder to find.

reception

incipient

perceptible

susceptible

FIN comes from the Latin word for "end" or "boundary".  Final describes last things, and a finale or finish is an ending.  But its meaning is harder to trace in some of the other English words derived from it.

affinity

definitive

infinitesimal

finite

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JAC/JEC comes from jacere, the Latin word meaning "throw" or "hurl".  To reject something is to throw or push it back. To eject something is throw or drive it out.  To object is to throw something in the way of something else.

adjacent

conjecture

dejected

trajectory

TRACT comes from trahere, the Latin word meaning "drag or draw".  Something attractive draws us toward it.  A tractor drags other vehicles behind it, with the help of the traction of its wheels.

detract

protracted

retraction

intractable

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DUC, from the Latin word ducere, "to lead", shows up constantly in English.  Duke means basically "leader".  The Italian dictator Mossolini was known simply as "II Duce".  But such words as produce and reduce also contain the root, even though their meaning show it less clearly.

condusive

deduction

induce

seduction

SEC/SEQU comes from the Latin verb sequi, meaning "to follow".  A sequel follows the original novel, film, or television show.  The second follows the first.  But a non sequitur is a conclusion that does "not follow" from what was said before.

consequential

execute

obsequious

sequential

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Words from Mythology

apllonian

bacchanalian

delphic

dionysian

jovial

mercurial

olympian

vernereal