Words, like houses, are made up of parts. In houses we have bricks, in words we have morphemes. Each morpheme has its function and meaning within the study of word formation. Why is it important? To write correctly and also to know our mother tongue better.
One of the most prominent morphemes in the study of word structure is the root. It is the part of the word that houses the common meaning essence of many other words. Check it out:
TEMPO
TEMPORAL
RAISINTEMPO
Did you see how the root says a lot about the meaning of the words? Did you notice how we play with the language all the time, forming new words, but none of this happens without the root being there? And did you know that radicals often come from another language? And how large is the number of Greek radicals that we find in the Portuguese vocabulary?
Many of these radicals of Greek origin came from Latin. Do you know why? In the past, Latin was the predominant language in the works of science and philosophy and there was no shortage of loans from the Greek words.
We've prepared a good list of these radicals for you. Check it out:
- ángel-os, aggel-os (sent, messenger): angel, gospel
- thlon (dispute): athlete
- alpha (a= first letter of the alphabet): alphabet
- agro-s (field): agronomy
- atmosphere (vapor): atmosphere
- aér, aér-os (air, steam): aeronaut, air
- bi-os (life): biography
- chloros, klorós (green): chlorophyll
- cron-os, chrón-os (time): chronic, chronology
- crypto, krypto (hide): encryption
- dox-a (opinion): orthodox, paradox
- give them (people): democracy
- edr-a (base): polyhedron, pentahedron
- stoma, stoma (mouth): stomach, stomatitis
- etymos, etymos (true): etymology
- gen-os (genus, species): heterogeneous, homogeneous
- gymnasts, gyminos (naked): gymnastics
- glôss-a, glôtt-a (tongue): glossary, epiglottis
- helium (sun): helioscope, heliotrope
- hex (six): hexagon
- idioms (own, private): language, idiocy
- isos (equal): isothermal
- lithos, lithos (stone): monolith, lithograph
- log-os (discourse, treatise, science): dialogue, archeology, epilogue
- monologue (only): monologue
- melos (music, singing): melody, melodrama
- necros, nekros (dead, corpse): necropolis, obituary
- ne-os (new): neologism, neophyte
- octo (eight): octosyllable
- odus, odontos (tooth): dentistry
- comb (five): pentagon
- polis, polis (many): polygamy, polygon
- semion, semeîon (sign): semiology, semantics
- tele (far): telegraph, telephone, telescope
- te-os, the-os (god): theology, theocracy, polytheism
- terms, thermos (heat): thermometer
- zoi-on (animal, living being): zoology
by Mariana Pacheco
Graduated in Letters