Okay, all, we are now halfway through the Greek roots with which I will be presenting you. I’ll bet you have already improved your vocabulary by leaps and bounds and feel like you could at east compete in the heptathlon, if not the decathlon (but not the triathlon, because Ancient Greeks did not have bicycles! By the way, there were four Greek numerical roots in that sentence. More on numerical roots later.) For anybody who would like a refresher course as to why we are so enthusiastic about roots, click here. If you missed the first helping of roots and want to start from alpha, click here. All caught up? Okay, let’s proceed:
Our first root today is neo, and it is appropriate as a new root because that’s what it means – “new”. Words like neoclassical, which described the revival of classical (meaning Ancient Greek and Roman) style that included such things as the architectural style of putting pillars and pediments across the fronts of houses (think of all those big government buildings in Washington DC, with their colonnades modeled vaguely after the Parthenon); Neolithic or “new”+ “stone” (litho), used as a descriptor for an archaeological age; and neophyte, meaning someone who is brand new to something (neophytes to ice skating, for example, are normally pretty easy to spot by the ring-around-the-butt syndrome—you know what I mean, ice skaters—we were all there at some point) are all words that use the root neo. So maybe this adds yet another level of meaning to The Matrix, for you fans of the deliberately obscure. Was Neo’s character so named because he was the Chosen One—the first member of a “new”, enlightened race? I will leave that for you to mull over.
Speaking of enlightenment, let’s learn more about a root that is related to knowledge. Nom is the Greek root that refers to “rule”, “law”, or “systemized knowledge”. Despite sounding similar, is does not mean “name” (but we’ll get to that in a minute). Our vocabulary words for this root, to get you started, are agronomist, which is an exceedingly fancy way to say “farmer”, if you know your agri root refers to the organized growing of plants for food. An agronomist might also be an extension agent or anyone who knows the rules about growing things. Next, we have autonomous, which is quickly defined as “self-rule” (auto being the root for “self”. Look at all the bonus roots you’re getting today!) You may hear this word come up in reference to lands like Tibet and Taiwan, which are officially under Chinese rule but which would prefer (and deserve to be) autonomous. Last but not least, we have the little metronome, which keeps time for the musicians amongst us who do not have obliging drummer friends. I have one perched atop my piano (a metronome, not a friendly drummer). At first this may seem like it doesn’t fit the root, but if you consider that the implacable little timekeeper must be followed, then I think you can see where the “rule” part comes in.
Last root for today’s session (except for all the bonuses I’m throwing in) is onym, and this is the one that does mean “ name”, as in anonymous, which as you’ll remember from the list of prefixes I provided you, means “without (an) name (nym)”, like an anonymous caller or writer who prefers not to be identified. Pseudonym will get you another bonus root, as pseudo is the Greek root meaning “false”, so pseudonym, “false name”, is an alias or a pen name, like Richard Bachman, the famous pseudonym of Stephen King. Finally, all of you writers out there will certainly know about synonyms and antonyms, or “same names” and “opposing names”, meaning words with the same meanings and differing meanings, respectively.
So, there’s your Greek root vocabulary booster for today. Now run out in the streets and celebrate the pursuit of knowledge!
Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/classical-greek-architecture-in-athens-31376222/
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