CHAPTER NINE: COMPOUNDS FROM TWO GREEK NOUN BASES

Many derivatives from Greek are formed from two noun bases. In such compounds one element usually depends on the other in a genitive or adjectival relationship.

The most common connecting vowel in such compounds is -o-; but -a- is sometimes used in compounds having a first declension noun as the first element. Nouns of the third declension sometimes retain their own stem vowel but often drop it and add -o-.

 

Study this list of combining forms commonly used as elements in compounds. Learn any marked *.

* philo- [Greek, philos, loving, dear] love of      philology, love of logos

* -phile one loving

-philia; -philiac love of > tendency toward > abnormal attraction to; one abnormally attracted to

* miso- [Greek, misos, hatred] hate of

* -meter [Greek, metron, measure] an instrument for measuring, a measure

-metry, the measurement of, science of measuring       telemetry, measurement from a distance

* -phone [Greek, phone, voice] sound, sound emitting device

telephone, device for emitting sound from far away

-latry [Greek, latreia, service for pay] worship of     idolatry, worship of idols

-later worshipper of

-latrous tending to worship

* -logy [Greek logos, word] discourse, speech, the science, theory, study of

-phobia [Greek phobos, fear] fear of     agoraphobia fear of the marketplace/open places

-phobe one who fears    skiaphobe one who fears shadows

* -nomy, -nomics [Greek nomos, law, custom, usage] systematized knowledge of, laws concerning

*-scope [Greek skopein, to look at] instrument for observing      telescope instrument for observing from afar

-gony, -geny [Greek goneia, generation < gonos, offspring, seed] production of - genesis  [Greek, genesis, birth, origin] generation, birth

* -onym [Greek onoma, name] name

  • row, row -- bow, bow
  • lead, lead -- sow, sow

-mancy [Greek manteia, prophecy] telling the future by  -mancer, one who divines

-cracy [Greek kratia, strength, power] government by

democracy government by the people

-iatry [Greek iatreia, healing] medical treatment   -iatrist, -iatrician physician who treats

* -graphy [Greek graphein, to write] a method of writing; a descriptive science

* -archy [Greek archE, rule, beginning] government, rule

arch- chief, first

* -mania [Greek mania, madness] madness, exaggerated craving

    -maniac one displaying such an excessive craving

bibliomania excessive craving for books

 

Exercise 1: Using the new combining elements and the vocabulary from the previous chapter (or words given with the exercises below), make up words meaning:

NOTE: The most common connecting vowel for Greek words is -o-.

Using the new combining forms and the vocabulary from chapter eight, make up four or more additional definitions and words: bring these to class on Tuesday

21.

22.

23.

24.

Exercise 2: What do these mean?

1. ethology STUDY OF [ANIMAL] BEHAVIOR

2. astrology STAR-LORE

3. astronomy STAR-SCIENCE

4. bibliography WRITTEN DESCRIPTION/LIST OF BOOKS

5. ergophobia FEAR OF WORK

6. cosmology STUDY OF THE UNIVERSE

7. typography WRITTEN DESCRIPTION OF MARKS

8. chromatometer INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING COLOR

9. axiology STUDY OF WHAT IS WORTHY [VALUE JUDGMENTS]

10. mimomania EXCESSIVE DESIRE TO IMITATE [OR ACT]

11. cyclophobia FEAR OF CIRCLES

12. metrophile ONE WHO LOVES TO MEASURE [OR WHO LOVES HIS/HER MOTHER]

13. iconolatry WORSHIP OF IMAGES

14. angelography WRITTEN DESCRIPTION OF ANGELS [OR MESSENGERS]

15. ergomania EXCESSIVE CRAVING FOR WORK [WORKAHOLISM]

16. demonocracy GOVERNMENT BY SPIRITS [OR DEMONS]

17. misobiblist BOOK-HATER

18. misologist ONE WHO HATES REASON

19. misanthrope ONE WHO HATES HIS/HER FELLOW HUMANS

20. philanthropist ONE WHO LOVES HER/HIS FELLOW HUMANS

21. mimeograph COPY-WRITING

22. cosmography A WRITTEN DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE

23. ergonomy THE SCIENCE OF WORK

24. chromatography COLOR-WRITING

25. astrogenesis THE BIRTH OF STARS

 

Exercise 3: make up fifty -logies: if you run out use the glossary or go through the alphabet [anthropology, biology, chaology, criminology, dendrology, endocrinology, frontology, geology. histology, immunology, etc.]. Know what the subject of each -logy is.

Need some help? Perhaps there are some here you did not think of:

 

Optional exercise: what do these fear? For Class on Tuesday

Some words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary by Russell Rocke: philotheoparoptesism ( < philo- theo- par(a)- + optan "roast" paroptan "to half roast") "to roast slowly for the love of God" said of heretics and others who have won the displeasure of the hierarchy.

osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary, without doubt a sesquipedalian, used to describe (in some detail) the structure of the human body, "made up of bone, flesh, blood, internal organs, cartilage, nerves and marrow." Translated into Greek elements, it becomes the comparatively streamlined, but still poly-syllabic, osteosarcohematenterochondroneuromyelic.

gawkocracy TV addicts as voters.

dystopia a place as bad as utopia is good, a word made up for humorous effect, as if utopia had been coined from eu- (good) instead of ou- (not) + topos (place).

 

Vocabulary : for derivatives  check the study guide

Some additional words with some of their derivatives for use in the exercises:

Exercise 4: Make up or find two or more words using each of the new vocabulary words, five for those marked with an asterisk (*).

Examples:

soma, base: somat-, "body" > chromosome, idiochromosome, schistosome, microsome, somatic, psychosomatic, somatopsychic, somatology, somatogenic (arising within the body), somatotype (physique), somatoplasm (the protoplasm of a body cell)

lithos, "stone" > lithoid, lithic, lithology, lithography, lithosphere (the earth's rocky crust), Neolithic, Palaeolithic, Mesolithic (Miolithic), monolith, nephrolithectomy, xenolith ("foreign stone", that is, a rock foreign to the igneous mass in which it is found), lithiasis (production of bodily stones), litharge ("silver stone"), lithium (Li), lithophyte (a plant that grows on rocky surfaces), lithotrity ("stone crushing" as a surgical procedure); the combining element -lite comes from lithos, as in phonolite ("clinkstone", so named because it clinks when hit), chrysolite ("gold stone", also called olivene)

xenos, "strange, stranger" > xenon (Xe), xenia ("hospitality" used in botany with reference to hybrid plants), xenogenesis (supposed generation of offspring unlike the parents), xenogamy (cross-pollination), xenolith, xenophobe, xenophobia, euxenite ("good to strangers" used of a mineral containing many strange elements), pyroxene ("stranger to fire" of a foreign substance in igneous rock), xenoglossy (the speaking of a foreign language by a person in a trance), Euxine (the Greek name for the Black Sea)

taphos, "funeral rites, grave" > epitaph (inscription on a gravestone, unlike epithets, epitaphs are unlikely to be hurled), cenotaph ( < kenos "empty"), taphonomy (the study of what happens to bones after death)

Exercise 5 — Optional

A. Take apart and define or use in a sentence:

 

B. Make up words meaning:  Check your answers:

 

C. Give five or more derivatives from each of the following: DO THIS EXERCISE FOR REVIEW

1. bios

2. zoon

3. ge

4. psuche

5. polis

6. soma

7. ichthus

8. chronos

Still looking for -logies? Perhaps these will help:

  • chaology (the study of primal chaos)
  • dactylology (communication with sign language)
  • ctetology (the study of acquired characteristics)
  • agnoiology (the study of ignorance)
  • neonatology (the study of newborns)
  • scatology (the study of excrement or of obscenity)

D. Give meaning of base word(s); look up any that interest you: OPTIONAL

Example: oread, base oros "mountain" [oread, mountain nymph]

Optional: Guess what bases these are hiding:

E. Give examples of:

F. What are these concerned with?

Checklist fot Chapter Nine

1. Common compounding nouns

2. New Vocabulary

Test yourself with this review. Give meaning of 1. base and 2. combining element and give another word using each:

Examples:

1. astromancy < aster "star" > asterisk, aster, asteroid, astronomy, astrology, catasterism, diaster, disaster + -mancy "foretelling the future by means of" > necromancy, pyromancy, rhabdomancy, nephalomancy, cephalomancy, bibliomancy, stichomancy, oneiromancy (with dreams), chiromancy (= palmistry), podomancy

2. xenogenesis < xenos "foreigner, stranger" > xenophile, xenogeography + -genesis "birth, generation, origin of" > orogenesis (mountains = orogeny), biogenesis, anthropogenesis, frontogenesis (the development of a weather front!), cosmogenesis, asterogenesis, pyrogenesis, pathogenesis, paragenesis

Some words from arche/archein: archaic, archaism, archaeology, archaeopteryx, Archeozoic, Archean, archbishop, archiepiscopate, archdeacon, archidiaconate, archpriest, archdiocese, archimage (cf. Magi), archduchess, archduke, archfiend, archdevil, exarch, archipelago, architect, architrave, archives, autarchy, menarche, archon, matriarch, patriarchate, archetypical, archenteron ...