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

Did You Know? 205Did You Know?Copyright © Cengage Learning. All Right Reserved.How Did Inventions Get Their Names?What would life be like if we could not hop on a bus, switch on a lightbulb, refrigerate our leftovers, or turn a faucet handle for water? If wewent back in time to 1700, we would have to live without cars, electricity,refrigeration, and running water.Three hundred years ago, people traveled on foot or rode horses onunpaved roads with deep ruts. A twenty-mile trip took all day; today thesame trip takes less than an hour. Because there were no stoves or refrigerators,people cooked over open fires. Meat was either eaten immediatelyor preserved as sausage. Disease-ridden water killed hundreds ofthousands.In today’s world, automobiles, trains, and airplanes provide rapidtransportation. We use freezers and refrigerators to preserve our food, aswell as temperature-regulated stoves and microwave ovens to cook it withprecision. Many diseases have been controlled, and average life expectancyhas almost doubled.The past one hundred years have been especially productive timesfor inventors. Such widely used devices as the computer, television (andthe remote control), automatic clothes dryer, computer, mobile phone,zipper, paper clip, microwave, Post-it ® note, digital camera, and the electronicreader were all invented after 1911.Each invention brought a new word into English. Often, scientistsand inventors took names from ancient Greek and Latin. This traditionstarted in 1611 when a Greek poet suggested a name for Galileo’s new invention,using two Greek word elements, tele- (far) and scope (look). Theinvention is the telescope. Modern inventors continue to create namesfrom ancient Greek and Latin word elements.The inventions and discoveries listed below make your life easierand safer. The name of each one contains classical word elements.ApproximateInvention Classical Word Elements Date of Inventionmicroscope micro- (small) -scope (look) 1665anesthetic an- (without) aisthēsis (feeling) 1850bicycle bi- (two) kuklos (wheel) 1862telephone tele- (far) -phone (sound) 1880automobile auto- (self) movēre (to move) 1885refrigerator re- (again) frigus (cold) 1890television tele- (far) visus (sight) 1925computer com- (together) putāre (to reckon) 1940microwave micro- (small) wafian (wave) 1963