Objectives of the Word Information Cross References of English Words Derived from Latin and Greek Origins

This free dictionary, or lexicon, has been created with the felt need of presenting a compilation of English derivatives from Latin and Greek origins and thus to give a broader and clearer view of the close connections between English and the two classic languages.

The Word Info site also strives to arouse a desire to know more English words, to know them better, and to use them more accurately. Unique features include being able to look up and to receive a definition for a word, or words, and to see the family connections in the word units.

The user should not conclude that exposure to this site, or hasty, erratic flights through it, will make anyone an expert wordsmith. It will require persistent, systematic study, practice, and critical investigation and appraisal to produce the desired facility and expertness with thousands of words which have been incorporated into the various sciences and even everyday forms of communication.

The Nature of Greek and Latin contributions to various languages

Although ultimately derived from a common Indo-European stock, Greek and Latin aboriginally had become different languages. Ethnologically, the Romans were not Greeks, but, however much they despised other contemporaries, they respected the Greeks and the Greek language and in time borrowed and assimilated a considerable part of the Greek vocabulary.

Among a number of dialects existing in central Italy, that spoken in Latium, whose capital was Rome, was used by Caesar, Cicero, Horace, Livy, Lucretius, Ovid, Pliny, and Vergil; and it was this dialect which became the universal Latin of the Romans and the essential style utilized in resulting modern languages.

Gradually, classical Latin developed into Late Latin, which by 600 A.D. evolved into the Medieval Latin of the Middle Ages. Beginning about 1500 A.D., the ancient tongue of Caesar and Pliny, now called a "dead language", became, with more or less tinkering, the New Latin used by scientists.

Concurrently, during this evolution of literary Latin, colloquial Latin with all its variations differentiated into the Roman languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian.

Since this on-line dictionary deals primarily with the making of words and not their pronunciations, this area with all of its possibilities for differences of opinions and arguments, is minimized.

Just how significant is English as a global language?

Today the English language is booming. We are witnessing the most rapid period of growth; in the number of speakers as well as in new words and meanings, since the great flowering of English during the Elizabethan era.

In the 20th century, English displaced French as the language of diplomacy. English is the language used in international aviation. It has become the lingua franca of the global marketplace, partly because of its insatiable appetite for foreign words and phrases like lingua franca.

English is the preferred language at academic conferences and in scientific publishing, and it is the dominant language of sports, advertising, and popular culture worldwide.

Thirty years ago, ten percent of the world's population spoke English. Today, it's twenty percent—about 1.5 billion people. Of these, approximately 375 million are native speakers, 375 million speak it as their second language, and the rest speak it with some degree of fluency.

Believe it or not, there are more people in China who speak English as a second language than there are native English speakers in the United States.

Word Info: English words-for better communication and sources to English derived words from Latin and Greek sources.

Word Info: alphabetical lists of units-or related family-word groups are available as another way to search for important vocabulary connections.