The Latin Key to Better English

A Practical Guide to More Effective Reading, Writing and Speaking of English

For Those Who Have Never Studied Latin as Well as for Those Who Did, but Have Forgotten It

By Archibald Hart, Ph.D. and F. Arnold Lejeune

If you never studied Latin, this site will help repair a serious weakness in your command of English. If you will learn fewer than three hundred selected Latin words (elements) and their meanings, you will gain a new knowledge and understanding of the thousands of English words, common and uncommon, derived from them.

We have been faced with the problem of which Latin elements (prefixes, roots, or suffixes) to include out of the many that have contributed to English vocabulary. Adopting utility as our criterion, we have selected those Latin elements that enter into the formation of many English words, those which combine readily with prefixes, and those that are particularly enlightening.

Twenty Latin prefixes or prepositions appear to us so important and helpful that we have given them Chapter One to themselves. Next follow are five chapters containing the fifty Latin elements which seem to us to demand priority.

Whether or not a particular Latin element deserves a place in this distinguished list is obviously a matter of opinion; we found the competition intense, and excluded many an old favorite with regret; but we are confident that a knowledge of the first six chapters (seventy Latin elements) will give the reader a background for several thousand English words.

Chapters Seven to Fourteen include 160 additional Latin elements useful enough to be treated at some length; indeed many of them clamor for inclusion among the fifty most useful Latin elements.

Finally, in Chapter Fifteen, we have selected about two hundred more which have fewer derivatives or need less explanation. This chapter will be particularly useful to those who already know some Latin, but it should not present formidable difficulties to any ambitious readers who arm themselves with good dictionaries.

Chapter 1, Sections 1 to 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes

Does abscond mean to steal? See Section 1.

How would you describe in one word, a man who speaks both French and German? Section 3.

What is the difference between an emigrant and an immigrant? Sections 7 and 9.

Why can intramural sports never be held between Yale and Harvard? Section 10.

How do the words biennial and perennial indicate the length of life of plants? Sections 3 and 13.

In what way is a postscript like a postmortem? Section 14.

Is there any difference between a subcutaneous injection and a hypodermic injection? Section 18.

How can you be sure that a surplice is not an article of underclothing? Section 19.

Index of Chapter One; Sections 1-20; Twenty Useful Prefixes

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 1 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 2 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 3 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 4 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 5 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 6 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 7 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 8 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 9 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 10 of 20

Twenty Useful Prefixes, Section 11 of 20