An Approach To Build Vocabulary: From Roots To Branches

Dating back to the early days of the English language, most English words had sources from Greek and Latin as well as the family of Germanic languages. Looking back to the origins of words can be a good way to expand vocabulary. I found a great pocket-sized book named Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder, which employs the approach of expanding vocabulary from Latin and Greek roots.



This book is well organized. In this book, each of the 200 roots is followed by four words based on the root. Each group of eight words (two roots) is followed by two quizzes. So it is not necessary to start from the very beginning and scour every page to the end which is likely to put much pressure on learners.



To make everybody aware how this book works exactly, I'll just show you an example. The first root it talks about is BELL. BELL comes from the Latin word meaning "war". Bellona was the little-known Roman goddess of war; her husband, Mars, was the god of war. After the brief introduction of the root BELL, four derivatives are provided. Antebellum, bellicose, belligerence and rebellion are all considered to have something to do with the root BELL. After two roots( ie eight derivatives), a quiz is there to help test as well as reinforce your memory. Having read the whole unit, you'll be rewarded a special group of words directly borrowed from Greek or Latin which are related to either mythology or history.

I keep it a habit to read the book whenever I have several minutes. I never waste a whole block trying to memorize any root in the book. In fact, the way I do it is to get familiar with those roots and recall them whenever I run into them. Anyway, the most important part is just to have fun.