Latin Words Hiding in Plain Sight
Latin has left a massive footprint on the English lexicon: According to some estimates, 60 percent of its vocabulary ultimately comes from the language. English’s Latin derivatives come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from equality to grandiloquent to quid pro quo. Academic and abstract, many of these borrowings feel very Latin-y. But there are a number of borrowings so ingrained in the English language that we no longer even recognize that they’ve been lifted straight out of Latin.
1. EXIT
If you tell someone to exit the motorway, you’re telling them the third-person singular present indicative form of the irregular exeo: “he/she/it goes out.” That’s right: exit is just a Latin verb. English started using it in the early
Major is major to minor: It’s Latin for “greater.” It also could mean an “adult” or “elder” in that language, which additionally explains minor’s meaning of “younger than the age of the majority.” We’ve been referring to academic majors in U.S. universities since the 1890s via a student’s “greater” focus of study.
7. VIA
Via, an English preposition “by way of,” is the Latin ablative case of via, a “way” or a “road.” Attested in reference to routes by the 1770s, via extended to a broader instrumentality, “by means of,” come the 1930s. It’s less obvious in obvious: This is from the Latin obvius, as something “in the way” is hard to miss.
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