Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd." Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast. Here, then, is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.
Statue - “a three-dimensional work of art, as a representational or abstract form, carved in stone or wood, molded in a plastic material, cast in bronze, or the like.” From the Latin verb statuo, statuere, statui, statutum meaning “to cause to stand, establish, set up, decide” which itself comes from the Latin verb sto, stare, steti, statum meaning “to stand” (all information is from
www.wikipedia.org,
www.etymonline.com and/or
www.dictionary.com).
RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – status, stature, stance, standard, substance, institute (and many more)
SAMPLE SENTENCE - “A gift from the people of France, the Statue of Liberty (official name: “Liberty Enlightening the World”) has been a beacon to immigrants to the United States of America for many decades.”
BONUS: Did you know that the metal framework of this world-famous copper statue was built by the French architect/engineer Gustave Eiffel?
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE: “And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his “I Have a Dream” speech, 1963