Apiculturist's Laboratory | English Lesson
English Word Origins

Latin, Greek & Germanic

Latin-based words and Greek-based words (usually academic, medical or scientific terms) are very common in English and are easily identifiable thanks to their prefixes or suffixes. Prefixes are a small group of letters positioned before the core of a word. Suffixes are a small group of letters positioned after the core of a word.

However most everyday words come from Germanic origins. Many words have both forms (Latin or Greek, and Germanic synonyms) to express the same meaning.

Main Latin prefixes

• ab- away
• ad- towards
• bi-, bis- twice
• con- with
• de-, e-, ex- from, away
• dis- apart
• in-, im- in, no
• inter- between
• re- back, again
• sub- under
• super-, supra- above
• ultra-, extra- beyond

Main Greek Suffixes

• -algia pain
• -ectomy cut
• -(a)emia blood
• -logy study
• -oid form
• -scope see into

Main Greek Prefixes

• mega-, megalo big
• micro- little
• macro- long
• cyclo-, gyro- round
• hydro- wet
• thermo- hot
• proto- front
• meso- middle
• poly-, multi- many
• oligo- few
• paleo-, archeo- old
• neo- new
• crypto- hidden
• homo- alike
• hetero-, allo- different
• iso- equal

Linguistic Fingerprints

Latin, Greek, and Germanic have identifiable linguistic fingerprints, a set of particular sequences of letters.

In addition to the prefixes and suffixes above, here are some of those fingerprints:

• Germanic is fond of ght, sw, ow, aw, ya, ei, ng, ck and the words derived from Germanic are usually short
• Greek is recognizable by ph, eu, hy, yl and by consonants that are usually not found together such as ps or pt
• Latin is characterized by a fair balance between vowels and consonants.

Example Psychological / pterodactyl Greek-based words because of ps and pt

You should always favor Germanic-based words over Latin-based or Greek-based words when talking to people in a general context.