A is for Ameliorate

I love this word, ameliorate. It has a very pleasant, ameliorating tone, and it reminds me of one of the first words I learned in Latin class in the 9th grade. It is the comparative of the adjective bonus (-a, -um), which means good. Melior means better (mejor in Spanish).

Melior

Our daughter Bonnie’s name comes from the Latin root bonus (-a, -um). In Latin, bonita means goodness, in Spanish, pretty.       

For you linguaphiles (Hank Dunham, call your office), here it is in its declensions. 

Number	Singular			Plural
Case \ Gender	M.F.	N.		MM.FF.	NN.
nominative	melior	melius		meliōrēs	meliōra
genitive	meliōris	meliōris		meliōrum	meliōrum
dative	meliōrī	meliōrī		meliōribus	meliōribus
accusative	meliōrem	melius		meliōrēs	meliōra
ablative	meliōre	meliōre		meliōribus	meliōribus
vocative	melior	melius		meliōrēs	meliōra

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ameliorate is sometimes confused with alleviate, but alleviate has to do with making a burden bearable, lessening the pain. Amelioration has to do with actually making things better. Ameliorators of the world, unite. Let’s make this world a better place! Tikkun olam!

A is for Amen

Recently someone made what he considered a clever comment about three English words known around the world—amen, hallelujah, and Coca-Cola. The ironic thing is that none of the three is really English. (Okay, I suppose we can consider the word Coca-Cola in its form as a trademark to be a native American English invention, but coca and cola themselves are simply transliterations from their original languages—Quechua and Temne respectively).

Amen
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language gives the etymology of amen as follows: [from Middle English from Old English from Late Latin from Greek from Hebrew] The word passed through these languages virtually unchanged, simply transliterated in each case.

The original Hebrew word amen is part of a wonderful constellation of words having to do with truth (see my earlier entry)—or faithfulness. The word amen has been used in its untranslated form in virtually all of the world’s languages and thereby has blessed and enriched virtually all of the world’s peoples.

Hallelujah
This is another Hebrew word that has found its way around the world without translation. Although today it is commonly used as an exclamation or interjection used to express joy or praise, the original word is in fact an imperative, i.e. “praise the LORD” (the word LORD being an evasive synonym in English for the name of God after the pattern used in Hebrew). The word Hallelujah (and its unaspirated Greek form alleluia) are among the most popular words in western religious hymns and songs of praise.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is not, strictly speaking, an English word either. Coca comes through Spanish from Quechua, from the dried leaves of the plant from which cocaine is extracted.

Cola, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is either of two tropical African evergreen plants having nutlike seeds yielding an extract that contains caffeine and theobromine and is used in carbonated beverages and pharmaceuticals. Cola finds its origin in West Africa, possibly from the word kola (the kola nut) in the Temne language.

A is for Anti- but also Ante-

Another one of those building blocks that we use to form words in English is the prefix "anti-". I think most of us know that it means opposite or against. We have many examples: antiaging, antidisestablishmentarianism (sorry, couldn't resist!), antifreeze, anti-inflammatory, antipathy, antipodes (we'll explore this one later), and many more.

There's a second ante-, usually pronounced the same as the first anti-, but its meaning is entirely different. Ante- means "prior to, earlier, in front of , before." Some examples:

antebellum——before the war
antecedent——something that goes before
antediluvian——before the flood
ante meridian——before noon (A.M.)
antemortem——preceding death
antenatal ——before birth
antepenultimate——before the next to the last

Note: Although the anti-/ante- difference usually holds, there are a very few cases in which the before (i.e. ante-) prefix becomes anti- in English, for example anticipate and antipasto (which is not "against the meal" but "before the meal"). I used to think antipasto meant before the pasta, and I always wondered why the "a" in pasta was changed to an "o" in antipasto. It turns out that the pasto root means meal or food. Of course, the first course of an Italian meal often consists of pasta, so technically I guess antipasto is before the pasta, too! Excellent. Mangia! Mangia!

Orig: 6/2/08

A is for Adit

All of you crossword puzzlers (cruciverbalists) out there will know this word for a mine entrance—adit—because it's a fine crossword building block—two common consonants that work as a first, last or middle letter and two vowels. It fits nicely into a crossword puzzle.

If you don't do crosswords, you may never have run across this word. You're welcome!

(I found out from my trusty dictionary that the word adit means specifically "an almost horizontal mine entrance" and that it comes from the Latin aditus, access, past participle of adire, to approach from ad, to, toward and ire, to go.)

Trivial side note: Ad was one of the first words we learned in first-year Latin. We learned it as "ad with the accusative," indicating the case for the object of the preposition. The prefix ad- in English is one of those useful "bits and pieces" that help us figure out the meaning of a word when no dictionary is handy (heaven forbid that should happen very often!).

Orig: 6/1/08

A is for Absquatulate

ABSQUATULATE

The effect of the Latin language on the English language is immediately apparent when reading the first pages of the dictionary. It is perhaps appropriate, then, that my first word, absquatulate, is a Mock Latinate form. In other words it is an English word formed from a Latin prefix (ab-, from) and suffix (-ate, to act upon in a specified way) with a non-existent root (squatul-, probably related to the word squat). For more on this interesting word, check here.
Orig: 5/13/08

A is for Ab Initio

To tell this story ab initio (from the beginning) I have to take you back to the time before I first went to school. I wanted to be an abecedarian. Of course, I didn't know that word back then. I just kept asking my mother when they would teach me the alphabet. When would I learn to read?

Words became my life. Thirty or more years ago, I began to study words on a systematic basis, writing down definitions and etymologies, not only of unfamiliar words but of familiar words for which I could not give a quick definition and derivation.

I guess it had to come to this eventually.

I am reading the dictionary!

Some will find that funny.

It's probably more accurate to say I'm studying the dictionary, perusing the dictionary, skimming some parts, focusing on others.

The idea may have grown from a book my niece gave me called The Know-It-All, One Man's Humble Quest to be the Smartest Person in the World. This guy set out to read the Encyclopedia Britannica in an attempt to prepare for a possible appearance on Jeopardy. He then wrote a book highlighting various interesting things he had learned on his quest.

Much of my life has revolved around learning words, looking up words, researching words, studying words. I thought: Why not do it in a systematic way? Why not start at the beginning and go to the end, from Alef to Tav, from soup to nuts, ab initio to finis?

So yesterday I started. I will be looking for unusual words, interesting words. I will of course be looking at etymologies, which are my passion. I will be highlighting the many different languages from which English derives.

I have chosen The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as my text, for a number of reasons. For one thing, I am most familiar with this dictionary. It has been my constant companion for many years. I like that it is more prescriptive than other dictionaries. In others words, it does not immediately acquiesce to popular usage. No matter how many people say "ain't," for example, it still considers the locution "nonstandard." That noxious pronunciation of nuclear popularized by Jimmy Carter, although accepted by other dictionaries, is still considered an incorrect pronunciation (which by any reasonable standard, it is).

Also, and perhaps even more importantly, The American Heritage Dictionary gives excellent etymologies for most words, whereas not all other dictionaries do.

Check back to my blog occasionally as I make my way alphabetically through the English language. It will be a verbal adventure.

Orig: 5/13/08