Logophilia: Words Have Ancestors

I've spent this weekend writing. But I still use a great fraction of my time to research about various things I don't know. I don't want to write anything incorrect, so I spend quite some time abusing the Internet and taking up a lot of the bandwidth at home. :) Also I've told some friends about this blog, and the fact that they may be reading stuff that I write fills me with so much joy :3

I rummage through my labyrinth of thought every night, at times this causes severe insomnia. I think many Earthlings would find this habit familiar. When we try to go to sleep, we are surrounded by tranquility (hopefully this is true for others) after a long day, our brain contemplates everything for us. Sometimes our brain goes wild, that's why we have dreams. I don't think I could live without having dreams. Even though I know they give unnecessary hope sometimes. So, ideas come faster than I can write, which is totally annoying. Plus, I'm barely one third of the way :P

Anyway. I have quite the obsession with words, particularly those that start with vowels (because few words can do without a vowel but a vowel on its own can become a word). I am not a nerd though; just ask my friends. I could spend ten minutes just lying down while staring at the ceiling, thinking about why words are spelled and mean the way they do. We all use words in our daily lives. I do, and you do too. Unless you want to try not speaking for a day (not even to yourself).


I've recently finished one of the most useful books I have ever read. It was similar to a workbook, but more compact and so much more interesting. I never bought it, but I found it sitting quietly our bookshelf. Apparently it was ridiculously cheap (it's more like a steal, really), and was a present from my mom to my dad.

So, I learned some roots of the words that English uses, and many of these are from European languages. The English language is a melting pot of different languages, which I think is really cool. Words have ancestors, the only difference is that they are immortal, which makes them the biggest family in the world. I was fascinated by the possibility of having a word's great-grandparent be in the same sentence with that word.

Forgive my lack of an art education.

Just to name a few origins of countless words in English: French, Latin, Greek, etc. I'm glad I made this blog after getting acquainted with a few word ancestors. I was actually pretty stumped when the URL link I wanted to use for this blog had already been used. So I used the roots of the word 'polyglot' instead - polys (meaning 'many') and glotta (meaning 'tongue'), both Greek. (Edit: This was the previous URL link)

I will pass on this golden tip from the book - learn the some common roots of words. Get to know them by their origins, and you'll be able to decipher (or at least take a more accurate guess) of a lot more unfamiliar words you come across.

My favourite root? Philein, meaning 'love'. <3 This word is Greek (it uses 'ph' instead of 'f'), and is the ancestor to these words: philology, philosophy, philanthropy, etc. The opposite of philein is misein, meaning 'hate/hatred', and is a root for the words: misanthrope, misogyny, misogamy, etc. Logos, also Greek, means 'words/knowledge/study', hence the combination of logos + philein  to make 'logophilia'. Haha! Some descendants of this root are psychology, technology, logorrhoea, etc. Just knowing a few can really help in understanding (and inventing) words. Teehee :)

Bhuel, slán! (Well, bye!)

アリシア

Now listening: Settle Down - Kimbra (she's so quirky, and somehow reminds me of Betty Boop. It must be her hair hehe)