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

174 Chapter 6 Word Elements: People and Namesgen (birth; type)Because gen forms more than fifty English words, it is anextremely useful root. Gen has two meanings: “birth”and “type.” The ancients felt that these meanings wererelated because when someone was born, he or she wasa certain type of person. Gen means birth in the wordgene, which refers to the hereditary information in eachcell of a living plant or animal. We are all born with ourgenes. Recently, an enormous genome research projectdefined the function of all human genes. Another word,generation, refers to people who are born during the sametime period.Gen means “type” in the word gender, which tellswhat type of person you are, male or female. Perhaps youbuy generic foods at the grocery. These have no brandnames and are of a general type. Context clues will helpyou to determine whether gen means “birth” or “type”when you see it in a word.nom, onym (name)This root comes from both Latin and Greek. Nomen is Latin for“name,” and the word originally appeared in Greek as onoma.vit, viv (life)In Latin, vita means “life.” Vit forms such words as vitamin,chemicals necessary for human life. Manufacturers have usedthis root in brand names, such as Vitalis, which is supposed toadd life to your hair. Victuals (pronounced and sometimesspelled informally as vittles) means “food.” It comes from theLatin verb vivere, “to live”—food enables us to live.Words to LearnPart 1anthrop1. anthropological (adjective) ănthrə-pə-lŏjĭ-kəlFrom Greek: anthro – pos (human being)referring to the study of human beings and their culturesThrough anthropological research, Margaret Mead discoveredthe rites of passage to adulthood in Samoan tribes. Related Wordsanthropologist (noun) Franz Boas, an important early anthropologist,studied many native American languages.Copyright © Cengage Learning. All Right Reserved.