The World of Words: Vocabulary for College Success ... - eLibrary

Word Roots 173Remember that there are two kinds of root—base word and combiningroot. Base words can stand alone as English words. They may ormay not have prefixes and suffixes attached to them. Work is an exampleof a base word.Combining roots cannot stand alone as English words. They requirea prefix, a suffix, or at least a change in spelling in order to form a word.Most of the roots you will study in this book are combining roots thatcome from ancient Greek and Latin. Although they were words in theseancient languages, they appear in modern English only as word elements.The root anthrop (human) is an example of a combining root. Itforms a word when it is attached to a prefix (misanthrope) or a suffix(anthropological).Nom or onym, meaning “name,” is another example of a combiningroot. This root has more than one spelling because it comes from bothLatin and Greek. It forms over thirty English words. Slight changes inspelling give us the words name and noun; adding a suffix gives us nominate;adding different prefixes gives us antonym and synonym.Every word formed from the root nom or onym carries a meaningrelated to “name.” Sometimes the meaning is directly stated; at othertimes the root gives a hint rather than supplying a full meaning. Theword name has the same meaning as the root nom or onym; thus, the wordand the root are directly related. Other words have an indirect relationshipto nom and onym:Copyright © Cengage Learning. All Right Reserved.Word RootsPart 1A noun is a word that names a person, place, idea, or thing.To nominate is to name somebody to a position or to namesomebody as a candidate in an election.A synonym is a word that means the same thing as anotherword; two synonyms name the same thing. (Syn- means“same.”)An antonym is a word opposite in meaning to another word;two antonyms name opposite things. (As you learned inChapter 5, ant- means “opposite.”)The four roots presented in Part 1 of this chapter are all related to peopleand their lives.anthrop (human)The root anthrop comes from the Greek word for “human,”anthropos. You may have taken a course in anthropology,the study of human life.