Experience the wonder of words by focusing on the Latin and Greek elements used in English.
This newsletter is produced whenever time can be found,
so there is no regular schedule.
Senior Scribe a.k.a. John Robertson
The four greatest risks to your mental health:
1. Excessive consumption of television.
2. Neglect of reading challenging materials.
3. Lack of stimulating conversation.
4. Avoidance of challenging word (vocabulary) acquisitions from a variety of perspectives.
It’s not what you get, it’s what you keep that counts!
You may scroll to the various sections of this letter or you may click on the section that you want to see (above). Whenever you click on one of these links, you may return here from that area by simply clicking on the Back button at the top of your browser or this
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The above palindrome answers are available at solutions.Any word or name that is spelled the same forward and backward is called a palindrome (from Greek palindromos, literally “running [back] again”) [palin = “again, backwards” and dromos = “course”].
Such words as “madam” and “sees” are examples of palindromes.
There is a short discussion and list of palindromes available on the abridged/slim version of the Latin-Greek Cross References link at the Get Words URL: http://www.getwords.com
See the ID and Password indicated above at #2 so you can make a search for "palindromes" (no quotes when you do the search).
There are many common English words that fit the category of palindromes. Below are ten definitions of such words followed by a number in parenthesis that indicates how many letters there are in each English palindrome.
See how many of these “everyday” words you can solve.
1. A notable achievement; a feat or exploit. (4)
2. Even; not sloping. (5)
3. More blood-colored. (6)
4. Twelve hours after midnight. (4)
5. Males and the females; genders. (5)
6. One who resuscitates another. (7)
7. To peek; to peer through a crevice. (4)
8. Pertaining to public affairs, or to a city. (5)
9. Made wet with dew. (5)
10. To blow, as a horn, in rapid blasts. (4)
“A dictionary is merely the universe arranged in alphabetical order.”
“The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you cannot comprehend them.”
-Both quotes are from Anatole France
“Emotional outbursts do need to be properly scripted, and I find that the impromptu, in particular, requires prior practice.”
-Matthew Parris, former member of the British Parliament, who was criticizing the current state of British oratory.
“The vocabulary of science and medicine is the language of Greece and Rome. Lack of knowledge of Greek and Latin roots hampers the mastery of scientific terminology.”
-Dean John Pomfret
“To be a power one must know how to use language; and how can you place words together unless you know their derivation and their real meaning?”
-Henry Kraemen
“Words play an enormous part in our lives and are therefore deserving of the closest study.”-Aldous Huxley
A reference to the use of long words; especially when verbal construction utilizing less amplification might represent a more naturally efficacious phraseology and as a result, verba obscura.
The following are easy compared to over thirty other verba obscura sesquipedalians that are available at the (much larger) Latin-Greek Cross References search dictionary.
This unabridged version of the Latin-Greek-English Cross-Reference search dictionary may be accessed by going to Cross-Reference Search ; however, you will need your User Name and Password for access (if you are a paying subscriber).
Enjoy your play with words by translating these into their “simple-English proverb” forms.
The translations of the “verba obscura” are located at this sesquipedalia page.
A fun way to see if you are paying attention. This activity consists of simple questions with tricky answers and may be found by going to Logical-Challenge Quiz.
In this short message, you are invited to visit the various educational sources located at the special links (connections) that are for anyone who may be interested in learning English as a second language, for advanced courses at colleges or universities, for teachers who are looking for course materials, for home schooling, for courses in Latin and Greek, and for everyone who wants to continue with his/her learning.
Examine these educational links to see what the Web has to offer.
If you have a “cookie” rejection turned on, I hope you don’t mind turning it off for this examination of the various “rich areas” of educational information.
Several subscribers have indicated their interest in learning English. If you are one who desires to increase your English skills, the site above (or the Web sites below) will provide important information for you to find an English course of your choice.
Once again, you would do well to examine these educational links for your personal use.
This site should be of interest to you. Visit Best Clips for some hard-to-find materials.
This Web site has some of the very best of poems with exceptional messages that we don’t see very often anymore:
The first poem is at Best Clips. For example, the poem titled Richard Cory is about a man who was thought to “have everything going for him”. The ending is a shocker.
There are also links to other poems: “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service; “If” by Rudyard Kipling; “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley; “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” by Alan Seeger; “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost; and ESPECIALLY: “The Ballad of Salvation Bill” by Robert Service which presents,“A smoker in agony and his desperation to satisfy his nicotine fit.”
“The Ballad of Salvation Bill” was written before 1958 which was before antismoking became a popular trend. Don’t miss this one! You can not help but laugh and and have sympathy for the main character at the same time.
Latin-Greek-English Cross-Reference Search for contributing (paying) subscribers. If you wish to have access to this valuable source of information, you may see the payment options at pre-payment subscription page so you can become a contributing supporter.
Latin-Greek-English Cross-Reference Search, a shorter version for newsletter subscribers.
Warning! You may receive hundreds of responses for some general search requests. If you want to see what is available for “fear”, “feeling”, “mania”, or “phobia”; for example, it may take up to a minute or more for the search results to be presented. If this is what you are seeking, then that will be fine.
More than 4 000 Latin-Greek headwords do not have their related words and definitions; however, some of them do have the English derivatives. There are currently over 5,000 head words and related words with definitions available for searching.
You may send an e-mail regarding what you have just read by clicking on the flying scarab so you can make comments, ask questions about the site, and indicate your interest in being a supporter of Word Explorations.