Latin Lives On--333 Common Words Identical in Latin and English

May 5th 2006

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by: BruceDPrice
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by Bruce Deitrick Price
 
"Latin Lives On" is news you can use in English, Latin and History classes: every day your students use words that have remained entirely unchanged for 2000 years...

Almost 15 years ago I was riding the New York subway and chanced to read a sign about rapid transit. It struck me that this word transit must be pure Latin, that is, unchanged in a single letter in 20 centuries. Nero wrote this word, and spoke it! I was astonished. Were there other such survivors? Yes, and one by one they came to mind, exit, ego, verbatim, stratum, bonus, alias, minutia, victor. All pure Latin. Or more precisely, pure Latin-English.

But how could all this be such a shock? I had studied Latin for three years in high school and almost entered a Latin course at Princeton, where I majored in English literature. I had certainly heard endlessly about origins, etymologies, derivations, and roots. I had heard a hundred times that English is profoundly indebted to Latin.

But here's the rub, etymologies and derivations are abstractions, and dry ones. To say that a word derives from Latin or Chinese or Arabic is interesting but not gripping. To say that you're speaking a word unchanged in 2,000 years is gripping. I'm sure this situation is unique in the worlds' history. There are, I suspect, few if any French words identical to Latin ones, even though the etymological debt may be greater. So it seems that by some marvel of perversity my books and teachers had harped on origins without ever declaring one of the most arresting facts of our culture, that we daily use words that Cicero used.

I was, of course, aware of the legal phrases and the occasional italicized Latin word. (If a word is italicized, or should be,  it is ipso facto not English.) But my emphasis here is on common English words, the profoundly ordinary words that do not announce their heritage. Words like editor, pelvis, opera, humor, labor . . . .

Reasoning ad hominem. I suspected that a majority of people have had a similar experience. Informal research confirms this. I have over the years asked dozens of people these three questions, Did you take Latin? If so, do you know whether there are any words that are the same letter for letter in both Latin and English? And if you think so, can you give an example?

The answers can be simple summarized. Roughly half of the people who took Latin state flatly that there are no such identicals. These people, by the way, quickly add that there are, of course, thousands of cognates and derivative and linguistic descendants and so on and on. "You know," they say, "like manufacture and homicide." Then they look proud of themselves, confident in their ignorance. What's even more intriguing is that the other half, the people who assert confidently that there surely are such words, can virtually never think of even one!

How can all this be?

There is Latin on sundials and Latin on coins and Latin on doorways and Latin on college rings, and all of these occurrences are interesting. But the most interesting Latin of all is most definitely the Latin on our lips.

Would you not think that Latin teachers (and English teachers as well) would be eager to capitalize on these amazing survivors from a long-ago culture? Yes, if you reflect on it for a minute, you would think that. But they generally do not.

Something there is in the pedagogical mind, it seems to me, that does not like to consort too intimately with the immediate, the known, the obvious, the vulgar slant on things. If salt and pepper will illustrate a point in chemistry, you can be reasonably sure that the chemistry text will speak in dispassionate tones of copper sulfate. And something there is in every textbook that is poisonously concerned with seeming professorial in the worst sense versus going for the students' hearts or, better still, guts.

In short, the epiphany that started out with the word transit has led me to a whole world of insight, insight into how education should and should not be conducted. I have been thinking obsessively about my own education, and the thing that strikes me over and over is how teachers and courses so often conspired to avoid mentioning the stupendously relevant, the breathtakingly fascinating, or the unforgettably immediate. Let me offer as Exhibit A the accompanying list of 333 common words that are letter-for-letter the same in Latin and English!

I hope that this list of glorious survivors will be used widely (and xeroxed ad infinitum) to help excite beginning Latin students and to make Latin seem easier to learn and more vital to all our lives.

It probably goes without saying that the meaning of the words or the pronunciation or the part of speech (or all three) may have shifted over the centuries. But the changes and differences are themselves fascinating and instructive. What the Romans meant when they said bonus and alias, and what we mean, can provide an interesting story and a visceral way to remember a word and its full historic freight.

My list was stopped, somewhat arbitrarily, at 333, mainly because I liked the symmetry of the number. Naturally, every Latin scholar will think of words that might have been included. Indeed, the list could be pushed to 350 or even 400 (or, with lots of medical terminology, to 500 or 600). But you quickly reach more and more obscure words, which defeats my purpose. The power of this list does not come from its comprehensiveness, but from the ordinariness of the words. The power comes from being able to say to a high school class, "You already know these words." Omissions, therefore, are not of moment. What's important is that Latin (and English) teachers can use this list to increase the efficiency of their classes. Simply declare, as dramatically as possible, "Isn't this amazing?" Here are all these words you already know and "guess what?" Caesar wrote these same words! Nero spoke at least a few of them while Rome was burning. The early Christians, awaiting the lions, used these words in their prayers."

This list, simply by being, tells us all 'viscerally and unforgettably' that Latin lives on. In our minds. In our thoughts. In our sentences. In our lives.

333 COMMON WORDS THAT ARE LETTER-FOR-LETTER THE SAME IN LATIN AND ENGLISH

aggressor agitator album alias alibi altar alumnus amen animal animus annotator ante antenna anterior apex apostrophe apparatus appendix aquarium ardor area arena aroma asparagus assessor asylum audio auditorium aura axis basis benefactor biceps bonus cactus cadaver calculator camera campus candor caper captor caret caveat censor census chaos character cinnamon circus citrus clamor climax coitus collector colon color colossus coma comma commentator compendium competitor compressor conductor confine consensus consortium

consul continuum contractor cornucopia corpus cranium crater creator creditor credo crisis crux curator datum December decorum deficit delirium demonstrator dictator dictum dilemma diploma discus distributor doctor dogma drama duo duplex duplicator echo editor educator ego elevator emphasis emporium enema enigma error exit exterior exterminator extra facile factor favor fervor fetus fiat focus formula forum fungus furor gemini genesis genius geranium gladiator gusto gymnasium habitat helix hiatus honor horizon

horror humor hyena hyphen icon idea ignoramus illustrator imitator impostor impromptu incubator index indicator inertia inferior inquisitor insomnia inspector instigator instructor interest interim interior interrogator investigator iris item janitor junior labor languor legislator lens liberator liquor major mania martyr matrix mausoleum maximum mediator medium mentor minimum minister minor  minus miser moderator momentum monitor moratorium motor murmur museum narrator nausea navigator nectar neuter nucleus oasis objector ode odor omen

onus opera operator opus orator osmosis pallor panacea par paralysis pastor pathos patina pauper pelvis peninsula perpetrator persecutor persona petroleum phoenix phosphorus plasma platinum plus podium pollen possessor posterior prior pro professor progenitor propaganda prosecutor prospectus protector quantum quota rabies radius rancor ratio receptor recipe rector referendum regalia  regimen renovator rhododendron rigor rostrum rumor saliva sanatorium scintilla sculptor sector senator senior series serum simile sinister sinus siren solarium

species specimen spectator spectrum sphinx splendor sponsor squalor stadium status stigma stimulus stratum stupor successor sulphur superior tandem tenor terminus terror thesis thorax torpor transgressor translator tremor tribunal trio trivia tuba tumor tutor ulterior vacuum valor vapor verbatim vector vertigo vesper veto vice versa victor video vigil vigor villa vim virus visa viscera vortex

About the Author

Bruce Deitrick Price is an author, artist and education activist. This article can also be found on his site http,//www.improve-education.org (with a second list of 131 Greek/English words.) Plus 33 other essays, many about literacy and illiteracy.

"Latin Lives On" is now 20 years old. Price comments, "Oddly, no Latin scholar has contacted me with a list of complaints. One person mentioned that some of these words are more Greek than Latin (apostrophe and rhododendron would be examples; all right, so they are Greek-Latin-English identicals). Now and then I'll run across a word that cries out, hey, what about me? For example, mule. Don't know how I missed it. But judging from the paucity of complaints, I have to conclude that the list stands up pretty well. I hope--if you teach Latin or English or linguistics or history or Western Civ--you will put it to good use."

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