When I was a teenager in school I used to muddle up the words agriculture and horticulture and aquaduct and viaduct. As soon as I learned the Latin roots of the word, I knew immediately what they meant. I could then work out that a marking on a map or a signpost on a route through France and the Alps and Italy was a Roman aquaduct was not likely to be a road.
Roman Numbers
The Roman numbers are the third row down. You can imagine how for years people just wrote a slash down for one, another for three. Then somebody carelessly wrote the two slashes converging like a a V and decided to use that for five. Next was the idea to put one on the left of five for subtracting one for four. Then an x for ten. Then a one on the left to subtract one for nine.
Interestingly, the Chinese numbers one, two and three are like the Roman numerals turned sideways. The Roman ten is an X and the Chinese ten is like a plus sign.
LATIN WORDS - English (derivatives)
ager - field (as in agriculture)
aqua - water -as in aqueduct, aquarium
arbor - tree
argentum - silver (Argentina)
casa - small house, casino
centum - hundred - cent, centenary, centurion (Roman army leader in charge of 100 soldiers)
circus - circle (as in Oxford Circus in London, England)
color- colour (as in Colorado)
equus - horse (name of a play; equestrian statue - statue of man on horseback)
domus - house (domestic, domicile)
fortis - strong (fortification)
France - from the Latin francia
glacies - ice (glacier)
gradus - step (gradient, centigrade meaning a hundred steps)
homo - man (homicide - killing a man,
hortus - garden (as in horticulture)
januar - door (January, janitor)
mare -sea (submarine goes under water)
mater - mother (see signs to the maternity ward in the hospital)
miles - soldier (military or militia)
mille -a thousand (Millennium - a thousand years; millionaire has a thousand pounds, mille feuille flaky pastry with a thousand leaves)
monte - mountain
Montenegro - black mountain
mortuus - dead (immortal, mortuary)
negro - black
pater - father
porta - gate (porthole)
prunus - plum
via - way or street (as in viaduct)
villa - house (as in village)
English words - LATIN
field - ager
garden - hortus
plum - prunus
street - via
water - aqua
Notes On Grammar
us is the singular; i is the plural.
I am an alumnus. We are alumni (graduates or former pupils)
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals
http://www.enhancemyvocabulary.com/word-roots_latin.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_words_with_English_derivatives
About the author
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages and home tutor.
Roman Numbers
The Roman numbers are the third row down. You can imagine how for years people just wrote a slash down for one, another for three. Then somebody carelessly wrote the two slashes converging like a a V and decided to use that for five. Next was the idea to put one on the left of five for subtracting one for four. Then an x for ten. Then a one on the left to subtract one for nine.
Interestingly, the Chinese numbers one, two and three are like the Roman numerals turned sideways. The Roman ten is an X and the Chinese ten is like a plus sign.
LATIN WORDS - English (derivatives)
ager - field (as in agriculture)
aqua - water -as in aqueduct, aquarium
arbor - tree
argentum - silver (Argentina)
casa - small house, casino
centum - hundred - cent, centenary, centurion (Roman army leader in charge of 100 soldiers)
circus - circle (as in Oxford Circus in London, England)
color- colour (as in Colorado)
equus - horse (name of a play; equestrian statue - statue of man on horseback)
domus - house (domestic, domicile)
fortis - strong (fortification)
France - from the Latin francia
glacies - ice (glacier)
gradus - step (gradient, centigrade meaning a hundred steps)
homo - man (homicide - killing a man,
hortus - garden (as in horticulture)
januar - door (January, janitor)
mare -sea (submarine goes under water)
mater - mother (see signs to the maternity ward in the hospital)
miles - soldier (military or militia)
mille -a thousand (Millennium - a thousand years; millionaire has a thousand pounds, mille feuille flaky pastry with a thousand leaves)
monte - mountain
Montenegro - black mountain
mortuus - dead (immortal, mortuary)
negro - black
pater - father
porta - gate (porthole)
prunus - plum
via - way or street (as in viaduct)
villa - house (as in village)
English words - LATIN
field - ager
garden - hortus
plum - prunus
street - via
water - aqua
Notes On Grammar
us is the singular; i is the plural.
I am an alumnus. We are alumni (graduates or former pupils)
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals
http://www.enhancemyvocabulary.com/word-roots_latin.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_words_with_English_derivatives
About the author
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages and home tutor.
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