Saint Ignatius High School

Etymology Word of the Week

As some of you know, in addition to being the Director of Admissions, Pat O'Rourke '90 also teaches Latin at Saint Ignatius and is a self-proclaimed "word nerd." Here is his latest Etymology Word of the Week.
Decide - "to settle something in dispute or doubt; to solve or conclude a question, controversy, or struggle by giving victory to one side" from the Latin verb decidere meaning "to cut away, to cut off" which comprises the preposition de meaning "away, off, down from" and the verb caedo, caedere meaning "to cut, kill, slay" (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com).

RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – homicide, regicide, etc. etc. BUT NOT deciduous, which comprises the Latin roots de meaning "down from" and cado, cadere meaning "to fall"
 
Sample sentence – "After all these years, I'm still not sure which door the Princess decided upon, the one with the lady, or the tiger."

To sign up to receive a bi-weekly Admissions eNewsletter, please use the link in the footer of this page.