Word Origins of The Omnivore's Dilemma and Commentary: Post I

Greetings, fans of word origins of English vocabulary words, especially Greek and Latin roots that form the vast majority of the English language! Thank you for reading my article from last week which concerned the Greek roots phyein--to produce and physis--nature, the primary root words for the English words physician, physical, and physics, an article which I will continue in 2 weeks time. I have been considering future posts, and have decided to begin analyzing different books that have changed my life, titles which have Latin or Greek roots embedded within them, from which I will not only illuminate the contents of the book, but also their relative etymologies.
Let's begin with Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, a book which I will be discussing during the next two word origins posts. The English word "omnivore" is comprised of two Latin roots, that is:

Omnis: all
Voro, vorare, voravi, voratum: to eat (vour)

Focusing first on words that derive from the Latin root omnis:

bus: yes! An "omnibus" is a vehicle of transporation "for all," the "ibus" ending being the dative plural of the adjective "omnis." Omnibus was later shortened to "bus."

omniscient: All-knowing, via the Latin root scio, scire, scivi, scitum--to know, word origin of science, conscious, conscience, plebiscite, conscionable, etc.

omnipotent: All-powerful, via the Latin root potens, potentis--capable, powerful, word origin of such English words as potentate, potent, impotent, possess, posse, etc.

omnifarious: of all kinds, cf. multifarious

omnidirectional: in all directions

omnipresent: being in all places at one time

omnia vincit amor: Love conquers all (things), quoted by Geoffrey Chaucer in The General Prologue when describing the Prioresse, a Nonne, that is, a Nun who was a Prioress; the phrase originated in Virgil's Eclogues.

Focusing secondly on English words whose word origin is the Latin root word vorare:

devour: to swallow quickly or eat greedily

voracious: via the Latin adjective vorax, voracis: ravenous.

carnivore: an eater of meat, via the Latin root word caro, carnis: flesh, meat, word origin of
carnival, carnal, carrion, carnage, incarnation, carnation, etc.

herbivore: an eater of plants, via the Latin root herba: plant, grass, word origin of herb,
herbicide, arbor (not to be confused with the Latin root for Arbor Day, which derives from the
Latin root arbor, arboris: tree), herbalism, herbicolous, etc.

In my next post I will continue with more English vocabulary words that come from the Latin root word voro, vorare, and with the etymology of "dilemma," including SAT and GRE vocabulary related to that word.

Commentary on The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
A hugely influential book that discusses the origin of our food supply. Most people don't give a thought about where our "food" comes from, other than somehow magically appearing at the grocery store or something we get quickly at a fast food drive through (by reading Pollan's book, one will soon realize that "fast food" is one of the most pernicious oxymorons omnipresent in our culture). Pollan goes to great lengths to illuminate, for instance, where most of our meat supply comes from, and focuses on CAFOs, or Confined Area Feeding Operations, where most of the red meat supply originates; CAFOs are horrible places of disease, antibiotics, grain feeding to ruminants who aren't meant to digest grain all in the name of quickly produced meat, and living short lives in self-created filth. I will never look at red meat in the grocery store in the same way again; indeed, I now raise my own meat (I was a vegetarian for over a decade until I read Pollan's work) via oviculture, or sheep farming, where I allow the sheep to eat my lawn, fertilize it, and thereby grow meat and wool, all linking back to solar radiation, the ultimate origin of all of our food. I used to spend 4 to 5 hours mowing my lawn at least once/week, not to mention fertilizing it (most fertilizers are petroleum based, which are also very hard on the environment) with 10-10-10 or some such commercially produced non-green product; now, since I let my sheep into my lawn every weekend, I have cut down my mowing and weed eating time from 5 hours every 5 days to 45 minutes once/week, and I also do not have to fertilize the lawn either, which is in beautiful shape; also, the lawn, instead of just being purposelessly and, I must admit, mindlessly cut, is now producing food from sunlight for my family, all in a green hence environmentally friendly fashion. By not cutting all the lawn, I also do not have to replant; I leave sections of "standing lawn," which go to seed, thereby not only reseeding the lawn naturally as the wind blows (really, now, plants indeed do create their own seed...why buy it in a bag, made out of plastic itself, and use the gas to go to the store to get it, not to mention buying a spreader to spread the seed when the wind will do?) but, by letting those areas grow throughout the summer naturally they become "standing hay" which the sheep eat during the winter, hence not wreaking havoc by pulling out short sections of the lawn (which, by the way, after two years of this practice, has never looked better; I challenge any pesticide/herbicide/seeding/mowing/vast lawn-industrial-complex company to do a better job than sheep at a cheaper price with better and more environmentally friendly results). I am now in the process of selling my string trimmer, a hideously noise making device that pollutes the atmosphere at a rate that highly exceeds vehicle emissions; the average lawn mower, as well, pollutes at a rate almost 10 times that of the average car; so, one can own a Prius (as I do), but if one mows one's lawn, it's really quite self-defeating in terms of limiting one's carbon footprint. Yes, yes, one's lawn will not "look" as good, but really, is it worth the time, effort, large amounts of money, and environmental degradation? Remember that the origin of lawns were affectations for the wealthy who did not need the land to produce food; it amuses me that, even in the current economic crisis, people continue to cultivate lawns when they could be feeding their families with the land they own (why not create usable land via gardening instead of a headache-producing, noise-enhancing plot of useless grass?). Imagine all the grass in the U.S. being put to work growing food instead of being mindlessly mowed every weekend to only be looked at...a truly effete notion.
I will discuss more next week, focusing on chickens that lay wonderfully nutritious organic eggs while primarily subsisting on grass, which gives the eggs plenty of omega 3 fatty acids and a beautiful golden color, rich in vitamin E, much lower in saturated fat, and a high concentration of omega 3 fatty acids, about 33% of which is DHA. All while not mowing my lawn. Hmmm....free food, less work, no pollution, no buying gas, spending more time with my children....or an "emerald-green" but in reality herbicide-riddled green carpet. You take your pick.
    Michael Pollan also has another very good book, which is a short guide to eating, entitled: Food Rules: An Eater's Manual.  And also In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I have these two books as well; they will change the way you think about food, and especially its origin, which is often NOT of people's radar!

All of the subsidiary word roots discussed above, such as scio, scire, scivi, scitum: to know, potens, potentis--capable, powerful, caro, carnis: flesh, meat; herba: plant, grass can be found on www.wordempire.com a site devoted not only to the Greek and Latin root words of English vocabulary words, but also to giving word lists, via trees, of SAT and GRE vocabulary words for SAT and GRE prep. Knowing the core of the English language allows one to unlock that language, making the learning of English vocabulary words much easier.  Or, if you're looking to learn vocabulary for the SAT or GRE verbal section, check out membean.com, where vocabulary is taught to you via an Adaptive Reinforcement Engine in a fun and engaging way which at the same time enhances your memory. 

Phyein: to produce, cause to grow, bring forth; Physis: nature

Greetings, fans of etymology and classical word origins! I have been discussing root words for the past three or so months that are particularly pertinent not only to those studying SAT and GRE vocabulary words, but also those who are interested in learning medical vocabulary. Thank you for reading my last post containing medical vocabulary from the Greek root word -itis--inflammation, disease. I have decided that this post will focus on the SAT, GRE, and infrastructural words whose word origins are common to the word physician and the science physics, that is, the following Greek root words:

Phyein: to produce, cause to grow, bring forth
Physis: nature (physi-, physio-)

Let's first take a look at some of the more common English vocabulary words that derive from this important Greek root word. Etymologically, a physician is a ‘doctor of the natural world;’ the meaning has now shifted to ‘doctor of medicine,’ although a physician surely does care for one’s ‘physical,’ or ‘natural’ body. Note that the other root word in the word physician is the suffix -ician, which came through Old French, and denotes a practitioner in a certain field, and has given the English language such words as beautician, mortician, magician, optician, electrician, rhetorician, tactician, and arithmetician. Of course, as mentioned, one's physical body is the body that nature has given one, that is, one's natural self made out of the elements that arise from nature; we are all organic organisms, based upon the element carbon, a molecule that arises from the natural world.
Some fun SAT vocabulary words come from this Greek root word as well. One, seemingly improbable, is the word origin for "imp." An "imp" is a little prankster, rascal, or mischievous child (or little demon or devil), which derives via the Greek emphyein, ‘to implant, graft;’ one ‘grafts’ young shoots, which later became extended to ‘small children,’ especially ‘mischievous’ ones; impishness is always to be relished in the telling of tales, such as Edgar Allan Poe's The Imp of the Perverse. More straightforward English SAT vocabulary include physique (the body that nature has given one, and that one cultivates via eating habits and how one cares for one's body), and numerous types of physics, or that science that deals with the laws of the natural world, such as particle physics and nuclear physics. Physical science covers natural science and the science of non-living systems, in comparison to sciences such as biology, which studies living systems.
Some interesting GRE-level vocabulary also has been produced from this root, such as the English word metaphysics, pertaining to the study of that which has its being ‘beyond the natural’ world. Metaphysics properly lies within the realm of philosophy, and deals with such subjects as eschatology (the study of what happens after death), ontology (the study of being), teleology (the study of ends), cosmology, and consciousness (although this discipline has been attracting physicists in increasing numbers), to name a very few. Metaphysicians are those philosophers who deal with the intangible, the noumenal, the transcendent, the ineffable nondual, the inherent mind of the Universe. Note that the prefix meta-: after, change, beyond, beside, thoroughly, is the word origin of such diverse vocabulary as metacognition, metaphor, metabolize, and metastasize. One's physiognomy (via the Greek root word gnomon (Gr.)—judge, interpreter) is one's countenance, or one's face as it indicates one's character, that is, the "natural judge" of who one truly is. On the other hand, one's physiological state is one's natural or bodily state at any given moment, that is, the state pertaining to the normal functioning of an organism vis a vis its body. Hence, physiology is the medical and scientific study of all the natural functions of the physical body, as well as the chemical processes that occur with it. Therefore a physiologist is a specialist in the organic functions of living organisms.

Next week I will focus on English vocabulary words from the root word physis that form professional vocabulary, especially in the fields of medicine and philosophy.


Interested in the power of classical word origins? In Greek and Latin roots as the linguistic core of English vocabulary words? In more SAT, GRE, and medical vocabulary that comes from such subsidiary root words discussed above, such as meta and gnomon? All of the word roots mentioned in all my etymology blog posts are fully augmented in the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today; a Greek and Latin roots poster is also available, which beautifully illustrates not only the sheer power of Greek and Latin roots as they form the very semantic and morphemic structure of the English language, but also contains a prolific number of GRE and SAT vocabulary words, including a vast host of medical vocabulary. Check out www.wordempire.com for more information.  Or, if you're looking to learn vocabulary for the SAT or GRE verbal section, check out membean.com, where vocabulary is taught to you via an Adaptive Reinforcement Engine in a fun and engaging way which at the same time enhances your memory.

-itis: disease, inflammation of: Post II

Welcome back, aficionados of word origins! Greek and Latin roots form most of the infrastructure of English vocabulary words, including about 90% of SAT and GRE vocabulary. This web log focuses on their vast influence on English vocabulary, most recently focusing on SAT, GRE, and medical vocabulary. Last week I began to focus on the Greek root -itis: disease, inflammation of; this highly used suffix in medical vocabulary usually indicates an inflammation of a part of the body, which is found in the main stem or morpheme of the word to which the suffix -itis is appended.
Let's start this week with two very common diseases plaguing the human race, that is, arthritis and bronchitis. I remember that my beloved Brunner grandparents, Donald and Virginia, were particularly afflicted with arthritis (they both swore by copper bracelets, which they inveterately wore on their wrists), or inflammation of the joints. My father, on the other hand, besieged by the cold winters of Wisconsin in which he often worked outside in the well below sub-zero temperatures on his trout farm (Willow Springs Trout Farm), often caught bronchitis, his lungs having been compromised by smoke from the nearby paper mill, at which he also spent 35 years working.
The primary morpheme of the word arthritis comes from the Greek root word arthron: joint, article {arthro-}, word origin of numerous medical and anatomical vocabulary words, such as arthroscopic surgery, arthropathy, enarthrosis, dysarthria, and osteoarthritis. Bronchitis, on the other hand, works through the Greek root word bronkhos: throat, windpipe, and is the word origin of such medical terminology as bronchial, bronchoscope, bronchopneumonia, bronchiectasis, and tracheobronchial; this root is primarily the source of much medical and anatomical vocabulary.

Numerous and sundry pathological conditions exist that contain the Greek suffix -itis. Here is a further sampling, with a generous number of Greek roots, the prime source of all medical vocabulary, and word origin for most anatomy.

Typhlitis aka cecitis: (word origin via the Greek root typhlos: blind or Latin root caecus: blind): inflammation of a part of the large intestine called the caecum, so named because the caecum, located at the beginning of the large intestine, is essentially a "blind" pouch.

Pleurisy: (word origin via the Greek root word pleura (Gr.)—side, rib, origin of such medical, anatomical, and scientific vocabulary words as pleura, pleuropneumonia, pleurotomy, Pleurodontes, and pleurovisceral): inflammation of the pleura, or membrane that lines the lungs (note that the suffix -isy is a variant form of -itis)--pleurisy sometimes occurs as a side effect from pneumonia, although my wife contracted the ailment from breathing in too much mold from hay.

Pharyngitis: (via the Greek root word pharynx, pharyngos (Gr.)—throat, word origin of the following examples of vocabulary words from medicine, anatomy, and linguistics: pharynx, pharynges, pharyngectomy, pharyngology, pharyngocel, pharyngeal, and salpingo-pharyngeus): inflammation of the pharynx, commonly known as a sore throat.

Salpingitis: {via the Greek root word salpinx, salping-, which means trumpet, since the anatomical structure of the fallopian (or Fallopian) tube itself suggests the shape of a trumpet...interestingly enough the Italian anatomist Gabriele Fallopio gave his name to this part of the female anatomy; an example of an eponym, which are legion in English vocabulary}: inflammation of one or both Fallopian tubes or the eustachian tube (which is also called the pharyngotympanic tube because it connects the pharynx with the middle ear).

Gastroenteritis: (via the Greek roots gaster, gastros—stomach, belly {gastro-}, and enteron (Gr.)—intestine {entero-}), hence, inflammation of the lining of the stomach and intestines.

Gonarthritis: (via the Greek roots gonia: angle, corner...word origin of such English vocabulary words, especially mathematical terminology, such as octagon, trigonometry, polygon, and orthogonal...and arthron: joint, discussed above vis a vis arthritis): inflammation of the knee joint.

Laminitis: a veterinary medicine term that has to do with inflammation of an equine hoof, derived from the Latin root lamina—thin sheet of any substance, Latin word origin of laminate, laminiplantar, and laminectomy. One of the donkeys on my farm contracted laminitis (inflammation of the thin tissue surrounding the coffin bone, that which attaches the hoof to the foot of the equine), and was given copper sulfate as a treatment by my farrier (via the Latin root word ferrum: iron); this condition can be caused by parturition (birthing), infection, or excessive ingestion of certain nutrients.

Rumenitis: inflammation of the rumen of a ruminant, such as a sheep or cow (via the Latin root word rumen, ruminis: throat, gullet), roughly (no pun intended) analogous to gastroenteritis in humans.

Meningitis: inflammation of the meninges (via the Greek root word meninx, meningos: membrane), those membranes that surround the brain and the spinal cord, which are comprised of three layers, the dura mater (from the Latin words for "hard mother"); the arachnoid (via the Greek root word arachne: spider) and pia mater (from the Latin words for "soft, tender, or kind mother").

Conjunctivitis: a medical term from ophthalmology (via the Greek root word ophthalmos: eye, word origin of numerous medical and biological terms, such as ophthalmologist, exophthalmos, ophthalmitis, ophthalmia, and tetraophthalmus ); inflammation of the conjunctiva, a membrane that covers the inner layer of the eyelid and the outside of the eye itself, from the Latin root word iungo, iungere, iunxi, iunctum: to join, giving the English language numerous SAT and GRE vocabulary words, such as juncture (note that Latin "i's," if preceding a vowel, often turned to "j's" as they came from Latin into English), conjunction, disjointed, subjunctive, injunction, junto, disjunct, rejoinder, enjoin, conjoint, and subjoinder, to name but a very few.

Phew...it's tough to be a human, or just a mammal!

Interested in the power of classical word origins? In Greek and Latin roots as the linguistic core of English vocabulary words? In more SAT, GRE, and medical vocabulary that comes from such Greek and Latin roots as arthron, bronkhos, pleura, pharynx, salpinx, gaster, gonia, lamina, rumen, meninx, ophthalmos, and iungo, iungere, iunxi, iunctus? All of the word roots mentioned in all my blog posts are fully fleshed out in the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today; a Greek and Latin roots poster is also available, which beautifully illustrates not only the sheer power of Greek and Latin roots as they form the very semantic and morphemic structure of the English language, but also contains a prolific number of GRE and SAT vocabulary words, including a vast host of medical vocabulary. Or, if you're looking to learn vocabulary for the SAT or GRE verbal section, check out membean.com, where vocabulary is taught to you via an Adaptive Reinforcement Engine in a fun and engaging way which at the same time enhances your memory.

-itis: disease, inflammation of

Welcome back, aficionados of Greek and Latin roots of English vocabulary words. Thank you for reading the posts of the last two weeks which discussed not only SAT words of the Greek root word pathos, but also GRE and medical vocabulary of the Greek root pathos. I have decided to move on to a new Greek root, that is, -itis, a suffix which usually indicates an inflammation of a part of the body, the main stem or morpheme of the word to which it is appended. I will spend the next two posts considering -itis and the primarily Greek main stems that go with it.

Most people know the following common English words ending in the Greek suffix -itis: appendicitis, tonsillitis, tendonitis/tendinitis, Achilles tendonitis/tendinitis, laryngitis, and even such nonce words as televisionitis (a true disease) and chocolatitis! More common, however, to the physician, and perhaps not yet so common to those first-year students in medical school learning thousands of new medical vocabulary terms, are the following words ending in -itis:

peritonitis: (via the Greek root word peritonaios, stretched across; note that the primary root of this word is the Greek root word teinein, to stretch, which gives us the following English words, among many others: tendonitis, Achilles tendinitis, hypotenuse, monotonous, and tetanus): inflammation of the peritoneum, the membrance that contains the viscera and lines the walls of the abdominal cavity.

gastritis: (via the Greek root word gaster, gastros—stomach, belly {gastro-} which is the source of such English vocabulary as gastrology, gastrolith, gastronomy, gastrointestinal, and gastric): inflammation of the stomach, which can be chronic or acute, especially the mucous membrane thereof.

colitis or colonitis: (via the Greek root kolon (Gr.)—large intestine, word origin of such medical and anatomical vocabulary as colon, coloscopy, colonoscopy, colostomy,colotomy, ascending colon, descending colon, and transverse colon): inflammation of the colon.

nephritis: (via the Greek root word Nephros (Gr.)—kidney, source of the following words from anatomy and medicine: nephrology, nephron, nephrosis, nephrotomy, nephrectomy, nephrite, and nephrorrhagia): inflammation, acute or chronic, of the kidneys, caused by many different diseases or pathologies.

encephalitis: (via the Greek root word Kephale—head {cephal, cephalo-} word origin of a such English words as: cephalopod, Pachycephalosaurus, Homalocephale, Rhynchocephala, and enkephalin): inflammation of the brain.

dermatitis: (via the Greek root word derma, dermatos: skin, word origin of such English words as dermatology, epidermis, taxidermy, dermatoplasty, echinodermata, and, of course, dermatologist): inflammation of the skin, etiologies of which are legion.

rhinitis: (via the Greek root word rhis, rhinos: nose, word origin of many English words, including: rhinorrhea, rhinoscopy, otorhinolaryngology, rhinoplasty, and rhinoceros): inflammation of the nose, that is, of the mucous membranes that line the nasal cavity

bursitis: (via the first of our Latin roots...again, one can see the somewhat more limited use of Latin roots as they pertain to medical word origins...bursa: purse, source of the SAT words disburse and disbursement, as well as purse (b's often change to p's via Grimm's law), bursar, bourse, and bursectomy): inflammation of the bursae, those lubricating "sacs" that help limit friction in the body between a tendons and bones.

parotitis: inflammation of the parotid or salivary glands, those placed below and in front of each ear; a more common word for this pathology is mumps.

phlebitis: (via the Greek root phleps, phlebos: blood vessel, vein, word origin of phlebotomy, phlebology, and phlebography): inflammation of a vein.

Interested in the power of word origin? In Greek and Latin roots as the linguistic core of English vocabulary? In more SAT, GRE, and medical vocabulary that comes from such root words as teinein, to stretch; gaster, gastros: the belly; kolon: large intestine; nephros: kidney; kephale: head; derma, dermatos: skin; and rhis, rhinos: nose? All of the word roots mentioned in all my blog posts are fully fleshed out in the most comprehensive Greek and Latin roots dictionary available today; a Greek and Latin roots poster is also available, which beautifully illustrates not only the sheer power of Greek and Latin roots as they form the very semantic and morphemic structure of the English language, but also contains a prolific number of GRE and SAT vocabulary words, including a vast host of medical vocabulary.  Or, if you're looking to learn vocabulary for the SAT or GRE verbal section, check out membean.com, where vocabulary is taught to you via an Adaptive Reinforcement Engine in a fun and engaging way which at the same time enhances your memory.