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That's right. Latin. Now tell me, how many people in this world would actually be studying Latin (for non religious purposes)? How many would know it fluently?
Although I still have much to learn about this language, maybe some people might be interested to hear how words in French, Spanish, Italian and English came to be. Well, let's take a shot!
Random rant #1
Manufacture
Manu stems from the latin word manus meaning 'with hands'
facture stems from factus, or facere, meaning 'to make'. In this case, factus means 'having been made'
Hence, manufacture's complete meaning = "having been made with hands"
Random rant #2
Many plural words in English these days end in 's'. Except, some are seen to end with 'a' or 'i' from 'um' or 'us' ends. Examples as follows:
Game => Games
Octopus => Octopi
Bacterium => Bacteria (bet you didn't know that one, huh?)
Basically, many words in English that end in 'us' (not 'ous') are supposed to take an ending of 'i when it's plural. Similarly for 'um' changing to 'a'.
Examples:
Stadium => Stadia
Abacus => Abaci
Anus...right...you get the point. =P
Random rant #3
Some people might remember the older word for bus, omnibus? Well, this is actually a Latin adjective, stemming from the word 'omnis', meaning all (omnipotent, omnislash =P).
Omnibus = (A thing) for all
In this sense, omnibus means a thing for all in the public sense - buses are (or once were) a public service. Over time, this English word became contracted to a simple 'bus'.
Oh well, hope people find it interesting. Let me know what you think.
Although I still have much to learn about this language, maybe some people might be interested to hear how words in French, Spanish, Italian and English came to be. Well, let's take a shot!
Random rant #1
Manufacture
Manu stems from the latin word manus meaning 'with hands'
facture stems from factus, or facere, meaning 'to make'. In this case, factus means 'having been made'
Hence, manufacture's complete meaning = "having been made with hands"
Random rant #2
Many plural words in English these days end in 's'. Except, some are seen to end with 'a' or 'i' from 'um' or 'us' ends. Examples as follows:
Game => Games
Octopus => Octopi
Bacterium => Bacteria (bet you didn't know that one, huh?)
Basically, many words in English that end in 'us' (not 'ous') are supposed to take an ending of 'i when it's plural. Similarly for 'um' changing to 'a'.
Examples:
Stadium => Stadia
Abacus => Abaci
Anus...right...you get the point. =P
Random rant #3
Some people might remember the older word for bus, omnibus? Well, this is actually a Latin adjective, stemming from the word 'omnis', meaning all (omnipotent, omnislash =P).
Omnibus = (A thing) for all
In this sense, omnibus means a thing for all in the public sense - buses are (or once were) a public service. Over time, this English word became contracted to a simple 'bus'.
Oh well, hope people find it interesting. Let me know what you think.