Latin influence in English: Encyclopedia II - Latin influence in English - Consequences for English

Latin influence in English - Consequences for English

As we saw with Latinate/Germanic doublets from the Norman period, the use of Latinate words in the sciences gives us pairs with a native Germanic noun and a Latinate adjective:

• animals: ant/formicid, bee/apian, bird/avian, crow/corvine, songbird/oniscine, cod/gadoid, carp/cyprine, fish/piscine, gull/laridine, wasp/vespine, butterfly/papilionaceous, worm/vermian, spider/arachnidan, snake/anguine, turtle/testudinian, cat/feline, rabbit/cunicular, hare/leporine, dog/canine, deer/cervine, reindeer/rangiferine, fox/vulpine, wolf/lupine, goat/caprine, sheep/ovine, swan/cygnean, starling/sturnine, goose/anserine, mongoose/herpestine, grouse/tetraonine, ostrich/struthionine, horse/equine, chicken/gallinaceous, cattle/bovine, pig/porcine, agouti/dasyproctine, whale/cetacean, kangaroo/macropine, ape/simian, bear/ursine, man/human or hominid.
• physiology: head/capital, ear/aural, tooth/dental, tongue/lingual, lips/labial, neck/cervical, finger/digital, hand/manual, arm/bracchial, foot/pedal, leg/crural, eye/ocular or visual, mouth/oral, chest/pectoral, nipple/papillary, brain/cerebral, mind/mental, nail/unguial, hair/pilar, heart/cardial, lung/pulmonary, bone/osteotic, liver/hepatic, kidney/renal, blood/sanguine.
• astronomy: moon/lunar, sun/solar, earth/terrestrial, star/stellar.
• sociology: son or daughter/filial, mother/maternal, father/paternal, brother/fraternal, sister/sororal, wife/uxorial.
• other: book/literary, edge/marginal, fire/igneous, water/aquatic, boat/naval, house/domestic, door/portal, town/urban, light/optical, sight/visual, tree/arboreal, marsh/paludal, sword/gladiate, king/regal, soldier/military, bell/tintinnabulary.

It is not always easy to tell at what point a word entered English, nor in what form. Some words have come into English from Latin more than once, through French or another Romance language at one time and directly from Latin at another. Thus we have pairs like fragile/frail, army/armada, corona/crown, ratio/reason, and rotund/round. The first word in each pair came directly from Latin, while the second entered English from French (or Spanish, in the case of armada). In addition, some words have entered English twice from French, with the result that they have the same source, but different pronunciations reflecting changing pronunciation in French, for example chief/chef (the former a Middle English borrowing and the latter modern). Multiple borrowings explain other word pairs and groups with similar roots but different meanings and/or pronunciations: canal/channel, poor/pauper, coy/quiet, straight/strait/strict, disc/disk/dish/desk/dais/discus.

As new technologies are invented, we continue to turn to Latin for help in borrowing or coining new English words: altimeter, allopathic, otorhinolaryngology. As long as English remains the language of science and technology, Latin words will continue to find new life.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Consequences for English", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki