The Greek & Latin Roots of English (35 page)

Ornithology

There is nothing better or more pleasant than to sprout wings
.

ARISTOPHANES (fifth-century BCE comic playwright),
The Birds

Ornithology
is that branch of zoology that deals with the scientific study of birds.

Entomology

Some have said that bees partake of the divine mind and heavenly breath
.

VERGIL (first-century BCE Roman poet),
Georgics

Entomology
is that branch of zoology that deals with the scientific study of insects. Entomologists estimate that there are at least 1 million species of insects. Although the classifications of insects have Latin- and Greek-based names, their common names are very often locally given.
Lepidoptera
is an order of insects, but one of the insects that belongs in this order is called
butterfly
in English,
papillon
in French, and
la mariposa
in Spanish.

You failed your Latin exam! But Sweety, it's important to learn Latin: All your friends' names have Latin roots…
    (
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)

Ichthyology

I shall be more silent than the fish
.

LUCIAN (second-century CE Greek essayist)

Ichthyology
is that branch of zoology that deals with the study of fish.

Metaphors

The symbol of early Christianity was a fish. This sign was chosen because the Greek word
ichthys
was interpreted as an acronym for the following words: Ἰησου̑ς Χριστός Θeoὺ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ (
Iesus Christos Theou Uios Soter
= Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Savior).

Herpetology

Nearby are their three winged sisters, the snake-haired Gorgons, hateful to men. No mortal having seen them will still live
.

AESCHYLUS (fifth-century BCE playwright),
Prometheus Bound

Herpetology
is that branch of biology that deals with the study of reptiles and amphibians.

Botany

In turn the lord who strikes from afar, Apollo, answered him: Shaker of the earth, you would have me be as one without prudence if I am to fight even you for the sake of insignificant mortals, who are as leaves, and now flourish and grow warm with life, and feed on what the ground gives, but then fade away and are dead
.

HOMER,
Iliad

Botany is that branch of biology that deals with the scientific study of plants.

Resting on Her Laurels

The Greeks believed that certain places were inhabited by female spirits of nature called nymphs. Those who lived within trees were called dryads. There are many myths about nymphs, but perhaps the most famous is that of Daphne, who was turned into a laurel tree in order to prevent her capture by the god Apollo, who was pursuing her. The laurel was forever after sacred to Apollo.

daphne
(δάφνη) = laurel tree

Genetics

But she bore Chimaera, who breathed invincible fire, a terrible great creature, swift-footed and strong. She had three heads: one of a fierce lion, one of a she-goat, and one of a powerful serpent
.

HESIOD (seventh-century BCE poet),
Theogony

Genetics is that branch of biology that deals with heredity: the transmission of characteristics encoded in the chromosomes of cells from parent to offspring. Classical mythology records many examples of strange genetic hybrids and mutations. The Cretan queen Pasiphae gave birth to the Minotaur, a creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man; the Centaurs, who were half horse and half human, were the descendents of a coupling of the mortal Ixion and a cloud; Zeus changed himself and the mortal Leda into swans so they might escape the jealous eye of Hera, his wife. (Leda subsequently laid an egg, out of which hatched four mortal children.)

Modern genetics began much more modestly with the work of Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), an Austrian monk whose plant-breeding experiments led him to formulate the first principles of heredity. Although his laws have been demonstrated to be not universally true, Mendel's theories on dominant and recessive traits are the basis for some of today's high-tech genetic engineering. The discovery of the existence of DNA and the development of the techniques of gene manipulation have opened up many possibilities, some perhaps as strange as those described in ancient myth.

He Looks Just Like You …

Although the Greeks envisioned hybrid creatures that combined the characteristics of humans and other animals, modern biology has explored the possibility of creating exact genetic replicas through the process of cloning.

clon
(κλών) = offshoot, twig

What Are You Made Of?

The molecular form of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), present in chromosomes and the carrier of genetic information, has been described as looking like two spirals wound around each other. Check your English dictionary to see how
chromosome
got its name. Can you see which Greek words are its roots?

ASTRONOMY

A clever and attractive Thracian servant-girl is said to have mocked Thales
(a sixth century BCE Greek philosopher)
for falling into a well while he was observing the stars and looking upward
.

PLATO,
Theatetus
(174A)

One branch of science,
astronomy
, does have its foundation in antiquity, since the heavenly bodies were studied with great interest by all the cultures of the ancient world. Many of the terms used by modern astronomers were employed first by the Greeks and Romans, although often within a different context. For example, when the modern astronomer uses the word
planet
, she means any heavenly body that shines by reflected light and revolves around a sun; but the ancient Greek definition of a planet was any one of the heavenly spheres that had apparent motion. These, then, included the sun and the moon, as well as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—but not Earth.

Some of the terminology of astronomy has its origins in Greek mythology. We call the system of stars to which our sun belongs the Milky Way because, traditionally, the Greeks told the story that it had been formed from drops of milk spilled from the breast of the goddess Hera as she nursed the infant hero Hercules. Hence, too, the word
galaxy
. In addition, many of the constellations are named for figures that appear in Greek and Roman myth.

In the ancient world, scientific astronomy and astrology coexisted quite happily. As we have already seen, many believed (then as now) in astrology, which maintained that the present and future could be revealed through the study of the activity of the planets and the constellations. According to traditional astrological theory, the interrelationship among the planets and the constellations, or the signs of the Zodiac, exerts a special influence over human affairs. And even if we do not believe in the validity of astrology, it has given us words that we normally do not associate with the stars:
disaster, dismal
, and
influenza
.

Although many ancient Greek philosophers and scientists rejected the premises of astrology, they did believe that the universe was perfect and unchanging, the visible symbol of a divine order; hence, they called it the
cosmos
. More popularly, the Greeks believed that the earth arose out of a great void, or emptiness, which they called
Chaos
.

Most ancient astronomers held to the view that all the planets revolved around the earth and that there was a band in the heavens that encompassed the apparent paths of the planets. This band was divided into twelve parts, each having the name of a constellation.

Signs of the Zodiac (Latin names)