FOURTH GENERAL EXERCISE

With a few exceptions like the Hale-heal group above under Verbal Families, most verbal families of straight English or of Germanic-Scandinavian-English descent are easily recognizable as families.  Witness the Good family and the Stead family.  The families in which kinship may be overlooked are likely to be of Latin or Greek ancestry, though perhaps with a subsequent infusion of blood from some other foreign language, as French.  Hitherto our approach to verbal families has been through the descendants, or through that quality in their blood which holds them together.  But we shall also profit from knowing something of the founders of these families—­from having some acquaintance with them as individuals.  Below (in separate lists) the more prominent of Latin and of Greek progenitors are named, their meaning is given, and two or three of their living representatives (not always direct descendants) are designated.  Starred [*] words are those whose progeny has not been in good part assembled in the preceding pages; for these words you should assemble all the living representatives you can. (Inflectional forms are given only where they are needed for tracing English derivatives.)

Latin Ancestors of English Words

Latin word Meaning English representatives

Ago, actum            do, rouse       agile, transact
Alius                 other           alias, inalienable
Alter                 other           alteration, adultery
Altus                 high            altitude, exalt
Ambulo                walk            perambulator, preamble
Amicus                friend          amicable, enemy
Amo, amatum           love            inamorata, amateur, inimical
Anima                 life            animal, inanimate
Animus                mind            animosity, unanimous
Annus                 year            annuity, biennial
Aqua                  water           aquarium, aqueduct
Audio, auditum        hear            audience, audit
Bellum                war             rebel, belligerent
Bene                  well            benefit, benevolence
Bonus                 good            bonanza, bona fide
Brevis                short           abbreviate, unabridged
Cado, casum           fall            cadence, casual
Caedo, cecidi, caesum cut, kill       suicide, incision
Cano, cantum          sing            recant, chanticleer
Capio, captum         take, hold      capacious, incipient
Caput, capitis        head            cape (Cape Cod), decapitate,
chapter, biceps
Cedo, cessum          go              concede, accessory
Centum                hundred         per cent, centigrade
Civis                 citizen         civic, uncivilized
Clamo                 shout           acclaim, declamation
Claudo, clausum       close, shut     conclude, recluse, cloister, sluice