English Hasn't Always Been Nice
In fact, it's a bit of a scoundrel. Sometimes it knocks down unsuspecting languages in dark alleyways, steals their words, and never gives them back. Then it pulls them apart, scrambles the bits, and puts them back together to make Franken-words! Part comes from one language, part comes from another. Our mascot, Wilbur, is an accomplice; he, too, enjoys mixing and matching word parts. But sometimes he pulls apart these Franken-words so that we can see where they came from originally. And that's what we're going to do in this class: look for the ancient bits that make up many of today's most common words. Hopefully, we'll draw the connection between the ancient meanings and the modern definitions.
Class Links
- Online Classroom Link
- Recording Password: cognate
- 2026 Witty Wordsmith Syllabus
- Honesty and AI Policy at The Lukeion Project
- 2026 Non-Language Orientation
Why Study Word Roots
Some have estimated that as much as 60% to 70% of modern English is either directly descended from Greek and Latin, or is based on very close cognates in related languages. Even though English borrows heavily from these ancient languages, it tends to get stuck on some roots and use them over and over again. By learning the meanings of the most commonly used roots and seeing how they work in combination with others, you can start to decipher words that you've never seen before, simply by recognizing the roots on which they are built.
Class Email Communications
Email communications sent by the instructor to the entire class will be sent from our registration database and will include both parent and student email addresses. It is your responsibility to inform us when your email changes so that we can update our database. The student bears responsibility for any information missed because he/she failed to inform us of a change of email address.
Any emails sent to the instructor should include the following information if you wish to receive a timely response:
- A relevant subject line
- Your real first and last name
- Your class ("Witty Wordsmith")
- Your class day and time ("9:00" or "2:15")
- Detailed information about your question or problem. For example:
- The exact assignment ("Quiz 3" or "Homework 7")
- The exact question number ("question 29")
- Error messages you're encountering ("Canvas says Quiz 3 is unavailable" or "Adobe says the password is incorrect")
- ...and so on...
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