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.
Dilate - “to make wider or larger; to cause to expand.” From the Latin prefix dis- meaning “apart, away, in a different direction” and the Latin adjective latus, -a, -um meaning “wide, broad, extended.” (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com.)
RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – latitude, latissimus dorsi (widest muscle of the back); BUT NOT lateral (this word comes from the Latin noun latus, lateris meaning “side or flank (of a body)”
SAMPLE SENTENCE - “The cartoon wolf’s eyes dilated when he saw a pig driving a motor car.”