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.
Prince - “a non-reigning male member of a royal family; a son or grandson of a king or queen.” From the Latin noun princeps, principis meaning “chief, leader, first person.” Princeps itself is a mash-up of the ordinal numeral primus, -a, -um meaning “first” and the verb capio, capere, cepi, captum meaning “to take, seize, capture.” (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)
RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – principal, principle, prime, princely (sum), princess, Princeton (prince’s town); accept, captivate, conception, deception, except, inception, intercept, perception, reception, and many more.
SAMPLE SENTENCE - “Prince was a multi-talented musician and singer who was also a pretty decent basketball player in his day.”
DID YOU KNOW? Here are some songs written by Prince that were more famously recorded by other artists:
“Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor
“Manic Monday” by The Bangles
“I Feel for You” by Chaka Khan
“The Glamorous Life” by Sheila E.
“Jungle Love” by Morris Day and The Time
“How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?” by Alicia Keys