Seeing Roots
This lesson introduces some common Latin and Greek roots. The first of these are related to seeing. Which of the words in the following description are related to seeing? Circle the words that you think might have roots related to seeing. Then read the remainder of the lesson to see if you identified them all.
The inspector inspected the telescope carefully. "Unless my vision needs to be checked," he thought, "these fingerprints belong to the most evil criminal in the land. I suspect that I finally have evidence of the crime. I'll need to visit the lab to put these fingerprints under the microscope."
Did you circle inspector, inspected, telescope, vision, suspect, evidence, vision, and microscope?
-scop-
This root comes from a Greek word that means "to look at." We usually find it in English nouns and adjectives, but seldom in verbs. Some words with this root are scope, microscope, telescope, periscope, stethoscope, and related adjectives and adverbs such as microscopic and telescopically.
The Greek word for chest is stethos. What apparatus helps us "see" into a person's chest?
-spect-, -spectr-
The root -spect- comes from the Latin root meaning "to look at." Our words inspect, suspect, respect, perspective, circumspect, spectator, and spectacle are examples of English words with this root. Circum- is a prefix you learned in a previous lesson meaning "around." Circumspect means "cautious" or "watchful" or "attentive to detail." Can you think of other words with this root?
The -spectr- form of this root gives us the English words spectrum, which is a "visible band of color," and specter, which is a "ghost or apparition."
-vid-, -vis-
Latin also gives us the root -vid- and the related -vis-. Both of these are forms of the same origin, "to see." Our English word video is actually the Latin word for "I see." The word evidence is based on this root.
We use the -vis- form in vision and visionary, revision and revisionist. A vista is a wide view, and to visit is to see someone. Visual pertains to the sense of sight, and to visualize is to form a mental image.
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