Tag Archives: foreign languages/linguistics

Word Root Exercise: Deca, Dec, Deka, Deci

This worksheet on the Latin roots deca, dec, deka, and deci can assist students in a number of ways I think. These mean, as you probably already recognized, ten; be aware though, that deci actually means tenth. In any case, this is a vocabulary builder, but contains words primarily from  mathematics, so it’s probably best used there to assist students in developing their own understanding and using words growing from these  roots.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: Log/o

On a rainy morning, here is a worksheet on the Greek word root log/o. It means word, discourse, and doctrine. Logos was a big concept in the ancient Greek world. You can hear it, of course, at the basis of the English word logic.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Vox Populi (noun phrase)

While I doubt you have much call for it, here, nonetheless, is a context clues worksheet on the Latinism vox populi. It’s a noun phrase meaning, just as it sounds, “voice of the people.”

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Cultural Literacy: Carpe Diem

Not that most teenagers need any help understanding the sentiment, but here, nonetheless, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Latin imperative carpe diem.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: Circum-

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word root circum. It means, unsurprisingly, around. This root is at the base of at least two key words–circumference and circumstance–from the high school lexicon. Moreover, because it derives from the Latin, it forms the basis of a number of cognates in the Romance languages, particularly Spanish.

-If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Sui Generis (adj)

adjective phrase Latin. Of its own kind; peculiar, unique.

1996 Spectator Major’s rhinocerine obstinacy in putting his personal political survival before any other consideration is sui generis…”

Excerpted from: Speake, Jennifer. The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Word Root Exercise: Idio-

To begin the week (which ends in the first Friday of Black History Month 2019), here is a worksheet on the Greek word root idio. It means peculiar, personal, and distinct. Think of the word idiosyncratic, a word loaded with other Greek roots (i.e. syn and crat).

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Learning Support on Latinisms and Latin Abbreviations

Here is a learning support on Latinisms and Latin abbreviations which I was convinced I’d previously posted. However, a search of my media folder locates nothing on this area of usage, so here it debuts, I guess. These are words and phrases that turn up in a variety of settings in expository prose.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Satrap (n)

Because I got stuck on the word as an undergraduate (which in turn–getting stuck, that is–happened because I have a hamster wheel for a mind), when it turned up in several things I was reading for a couple of different history courses, I couldn’t resist to compose this context clues worksheet on the noun satrap. For the record, its primary meaning is the governor of a province in ancient Persia. But it can also mean ruler, subordinate official, and, weirdly, henchman.

Can you hear the dialogue in a pulp novel? “Louie! Rocco! Get on the horn and find us some satraps for the bank job.”

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Mea Culpa (n)

Because it was Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day yesterday, and because it is arguably a term–and definitely a concept–students should understand, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun mea culpa. As it sounds, it is a Latin phrase and is an acknowledgement of one’s fault or error. Another way of thinking about is to remember that if you do something wrong, you are culpable for your action and its consequence.

If you find typos in  and this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.