Communicating Roots
Several roots are related to words we use about communicating: stating, writing, questioning, and reading. Which of the words in the following description are related to these aspects of communicating? Circle the parts of the words that you think might have "communicating" roots. Then read the remainder of the lesson to see if you found them all.
The attorney scribbled a list of questions to be asked at the inquest. She was sure that a description of the crime scene would be requested, and a copy of the drug prescription, and probably a transcript of the confession. Her notes were barely legible, but she would dictate them later for the clerk to transcribe.
Did you circle scribbled, questions, inquest, description, requested, prescription, transcript, legible, dictate, and transcribe?
-dict-
English obtained the root -dict-from the Latin word meaning "to say." English combines this root with the prefix ver-, which means "true," to give us a word that means a judgment or decision of a jury: verdict. One's diction is how one speaks, and a dictionary gives us words, their definitions, and pronunciations. When we dictate, we speak aloud or command. Edict, contradict, and predict all combine this root with a prefix to form different English words.
-scrib-, -script-
While scribbling is done in haste and carelessly, or sometimes by children imitating the writing process, the word itself has an honorable origin, coming from the Latin word scribere meaning "to write." The word scribe and its many combination forms, such as describe, prescribe, and subscribe, are other words using this root.
When combined words are changed to form nouns, we see the -script- forms description, prescription, subscription, inscription, and the word script itself. Review the following definitions of -script- words.
subscription a promise to pay (signature at the end of an agreement, or "write under"), often for issues of a newspaper or magazine. (What is the cost of a subscription to that paper?)
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prescription a written order or direction, as for a medicine or treatment. (Did you pick up the prescription at the pharmacy?)
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description a written or spoken picture; account. (She wrote a description of the accident.)
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script handwriting; also, a written document, such as a play. (He wrote a script for that television series.)
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inscription words written in something, as a watch or ring. (The inscription on the trophy read "Best Player, 1992.")
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transcript a written (typewritten, word-processed) copy; also, academic record. (She sent her transcript from Stanford University.)
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-leg-, -lect-
The two root forms -leg- and -lect- come to English from the Latin legere, "to read." The -leg- appears in legible, meaning "readable," and illegible, "not readable." Lectures were, at one time, read to an audience, although now lectures are sometimes given from notes, from memory, or spontaneously. Likewise, a lectern is a stand for a speaker's notes and books from which a lecture is read.
-quer-, -quest-
Query, quest, inquest, request, and question all have the root forms -quer- or -quest-, from the Latin word meaning "to ask." Another form of the root is -quire-, as in inquire and require. How is a quest, or search, a form of asking?
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