Origin: The word form comes from the Latin words for a mold (forma) and the Latin verb to form or to create (formare). As a verb, to form means to create something in a specific shape. Meaning: The form of something is its shape. If English were infinite, or without (in) a limit, we would be learning it forever! 7. You could say that you’ve brought an end (both de and fin) to your lack of understanding!ĭon’t worry, there’s a finite number of words in English, which is a noun (ite) that means something that has a limit or end (fin). Related words: You’ve probably defined a lot of vocabulary words in your English learning, which means you’ve looked up what the words mean. Origin: Finish comes from the Latin word finis which means “end.” In many words, this is shortened to fin. In a few seconds you’ll be finished reading this sentence. Meaning: To finish something means to be done with it. Related words: You can see condensation when evaporated water molecules join together (con) and become thick (dens) enough to form droplets.ĭensity is the measure of how thickly packed (dens) something is, like people or things in one space. Origin: Dense comes from the Latin densus, meaning “thick.” For example, a fog can be so dense, or thick, that you can’t see much through it. Meaning: Something dense is packed tightly or very thick. Airplanes are aerodynamic, which means they use the air (aer) to power (dynamic) their flight.ĭon’t forget to look down when you’re in that plane, since aerial (of the air) views are pretty amazing! English Word Origins: Latin 5.

Related words: An airplane is a relatively flat object (plane) that flies in the air (air). You can actually find words that use both aer and air. Origin: The word air has gone through a few languages before ending up in English, but it probably comes from the Greek word aer, which means to blow or breathe. Without air, we wouldn’t be able to breathe! It’s the invisible gas that creates our atmosphere. That means they move their lips (lip) together (syn) with the music without actually creating the sounds themselves. Stay away from a play if the synopsis says the actors lip-sync. Synopsis and summary are actually synonyms, which are words that share the same (syn) meaning but have a different sound or name (onym). It’s a way for everyone to see (opsis) the meaning together (syn). Related words: A synopsis is a summary of something like a movie or a play. Origin: Sync comes from a Greek word that means to be together (sym or syn). This word is a shortening of the word synchronize, but it’s used alone nowadays as a verb (your phone apps might even sync to make sure your files are up to date). Meaning: When a few things happen at the same time or in the same way, they’re in sync. No matter how exciting someone’s hyperbole is, try not to hyperventilate! That means to breathe or blow out air (ventilate) too much (hyper) in a way that makes you dizzy. Related words: When someone tells you they’re so hungry they could eat a horse, you know they’re just exaggerating by using a hyperbole-stretching the truth, like throwing (bole) something too far (hyper). Origin: Hyper is actually a shortening of the word hyperactive, which combines the Greek word meaning “over, beyond” (hyper) and the Latin word for something that’s done (act). Meaning: Someone who is hyper is very energetic and lively. If you like hearing nice things you might enjoy a symphony, which is when many instruments play together (sym) to make a beautiful sound (phon)… usually. Related words: Homophones are words that sound (phon) the same (homo) but are spelled differently, like hear and here. Origin: The English word phone is actually short for telephone, which comes from the Greek words for sound (phon) and far away (tele). Meaning: A phone is a device that’s used to communicate with people from a distance (you might be using a phone to read this!). (Download) English Word Origins: Greek 1. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. How Learning Word Origins Can Improve Your English.Here are the origins of 18 English words-though you will learn the meanings of more than 30 other words! So “together (sym)” tells you that the root sym means together. These words will be broken down into their roots with parentheses. With each word below, you will see a “related words” section. A majority of English word roots come from Latin and Greek, but there are plenty from other languages as well. The origin of a word is the language it originally came from.

Then, for each new word, you will actually learn two, three or even ten additional words!

What if I told you that there is a way to learn multiple English words at the same time?Īll you have to do is learn the origin of English words along with their definitions. SeptemOrigins of English Words: 18 Terms with Cool Life Stories

Origin meaning