Due to the particularities concerning Grammar, there is a linguistic fact related to the process of word formation.
In this way, one must conceive that numerous words belonging to the Portuguese language originate from other languages, more precisely from the Greek and Latin.
To better understand how this process takes place, we will take as an example the word self-cleaning. It is composed of two radicals: self- and clean-.
Auto- is a Greek stem, whose meaning is related to “by itself”, and limp- is a stem that enables the creation of a series of new words formed from it.
Like for example: cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, among others. In this way, the term in evidence means cleans itself, by itself.
Expanding the notion of how the semantics of some radicals of Greek and Latin origin occurs, we will analyze some occurrences below:
Latin origin:
| radicals | Meaning | Examples |
| agri | field | farmer |
| beli | war | belligerent |
| ferri | iron | ferric |
| crazy | place | location |
| mater | mom | maternal |
| eyeglass | eye | eye |
| opera | work, work | factory worker |
| pater | father | paternal |
| withdrew | straight | rectilinear |
| tri | three | quarter |
| vermi | worm | vermifuge |
| video | who sees | fortune teller |
| vinyl | wine | winery |
| bird | who eats | carnivore |
Greek Origin:
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| radicals | Meaning | Examples |
| agogo | who leads | pedagogue |
| pain | ache | neuralgia |
| archy | government | monarchy |
| knock | who walks | acrobat |
| chlorine | green | chlorophyll |
| dermis | skin | dermatologist |
| etho | custom | ethic |
| hema | blood | Red blood cell |
| mancia | guessing | palmistry |
| asked | instruction | encyclopedia |
| pleo | full | pleonasm |
| term | heat | thermometer |
| top | place | surveyor |
| zoo | animal | zoology |
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
Brazil School Team
Grammar - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
DUARTE, Vânia Maria do Nascimento. "The semantic value of radicals"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/o-valor-semantico-dos-radicais.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.