A young woman who works as a nanny wants to know why the term charge is used to refer to the youngsters she cares for. Charge goes back to a Latin root meaning, “to carry,” and it essentially has to do with being responsible for something difficult...
Is there a difference between reticent and reluctant? Reticent more specifically involves reluctance to speak–it comes from the Latin root meaning “silent,” and is a relative of the word tacit–whereas you can be reluctant to do anything. This is...
The words respiration and inspiration have the same Latin root, spirare, which means “to breathe.” The word conspire has the same Latin etymological root. But what does conspiring have to do with breathing? The source of this term is notion that...
Here’s a testy T-shirt slogan: “Polyamory is wrong! It’s either multiamory or polyphilia. But mixing Greek and Latin roots? Wrong!” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymological Mish-Mashery” Recently on my personal Facebook page...
