By Richard K. MUNRO

ESSAY #1

97% of English words come from three language sources GERMANIC (or “Anglo-Saxon”) , LATIN or GREEK. 

For example, the beautiful word WILDERNESS is not a Greek or Latin word but from the old mother tongue ANGLO-SAXON. Wild+ Dior (animal) from which comes the word DEER a particular animal but originally all animals hence (cf Dear Mouse) . -Ness is an Anglo-Saxon suffice meaning state of being so WILDERNESS is literally a “wild animal place”! DESERT is a near synonym from Latin meaning a wasteland, wilderness, infertile area (wooded or not). Gradually it came to mean a “waterless, treeless area.”  Of course, some people think the forest or rainforest is not a wilderness but a PARADISE (to use a Greek word going back to Xenophon and the Bible ).  Here is a quote by Thoreau who uses Sahara as a synonym for wilderness or desert and then compares it to paradise :

Every important worker will report what life there is in him. It makes no odds into what seeming deserts the poet is born. Though all his neighbors pronounce it a Sahara, it will be a paradise to him; for the desert which we see is the result of the barrenness of our experience. [Thoreau, Journal, May 6, 1854]

COMMON ORIGINS OF ENGLISH:

	40% ANGLO- SAXON (or  Germanic) Basic English. Includes Norse and some native Celtic words.	30% LATIN Includes French and Romance languages   Legal or ACADEMIC WORDS	30% GREEK Or Hellenic words.     ACADEMIC WORDS
1)Funny 2) fun (n.) 3) funnyman (person); joker, wag, wit		1) diverting; humorous, risible, zany*, ludicrous 2) Diversion (n.) 3)farceur; jester	1)comical * 2) Comedy 3)Comic/comedian
1) teacher 2) to teach (taught) (v.)		1) professor; educator 2) to educate (v.)	1) mentor* (usually metaphorical) 2) to mentor* (v.)
1)To ape; to “copycat” 2) an ape; “copycat” 3) apish 4) aping (copying)		1) to imitate; to copy 2) imitator 3) imitative 4) imitation	1) to mimic* 2) a mimic* 3.XXX 4) mimicry*