The semantic value of radicals

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 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 allows 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  that eats  carnivore


Greek Origin:

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 guesswork 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

Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/o-valor-semantico-dos-radicais.htm

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