Now, as I really enjoy etymology, I thought this was a great subject. Of course, there were a lot of words with Latin origins, so it's a great topic for a Latin blog!
Here is a list of the English words discussed that were derived from Latin:
- Lemur - meaning "spirits of the dead" or "family ghost", according to my Halloween vocab. Derived from lemur, lemuris. Also, if I have a family ghost, I'm cool with it being a lemur.
- Muscle - meaning "little mouse". Derived from mus, muris (mouse) and the suffix -cle, altering noun to make diminutive.
- Salmon - meaning "to leap". Derived from salio, salire, salui, saltus; Latin equivalent salmo, salmonis.
- Apprehend - meaning "to grasp". Derived from...(wait for it)...apprehendo, apprehendere, apprehendi, apprehensus.
- Candidate - meaning "white robed". Derived from candidatus, candidata, candidatum.
- Nice - meaning..."ignorant"? Really? Apparently derived from nescius, nescia, nescium.
- Noon - meaning "9th Hour". Derived from nonus, nona, nonum and hora, horae.
- Escape - meaning "out cloak" according to Mental Floss, but I have to disagree. Wouldn't it make more sense to be derived from ex- (out of) and capio, capere, cepi, captum (to take hold of/grasp)?
- Ambulance - meaning "walking". Derived from ambulans, ambulantis.
- Lobster - meaning "locus", but this one I had trouble with. According to my handy copy of The New College Latin and English Dictionary (tagline: The Only Latin-English Dictionary Available At Chapters In St. Catharines ™), locust is locusta, locustae, and lobster has it's own Latin word, astacus, astaci. I don't know if the word lobster has been heavily modified or the dictionary is just not giving me another word.
- Senator - meaning "old". Derived from senex, senis.
Many of the other words would also be derived from Latin indirectly, particularly the French and Italian words. It's interesting to hear how words form and the journey they take to become part of out vocabulary.
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