Transcript
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Seriously, guys? What are you doing? I’m trying to have a little fun, blow off some steam, do what I like to do. [MUSIC] You need a word for the show. Tell you what, I’m about to do some writing. Why don’t you go look at writing and keep your ears open. If you hear the cops out there, somebody let me know. [MUSIC] It’s Word Up, the vocab show, starring Dwane Thomas. Word Up teaches you the Latin and Greek roots of countless English words. Use them to amaze your friends and family members. Now sit back and enjoy the show. Please tell me he knows that what he’s doing is wrong. That’s illegal and he knows that, right? We’ve got to go deal with this now. Hello everyone and welcome to Word Up. I know what you just saw. I know that you know that that’s wrong. I also know that’s wrong, and we’re going to do something about it. That guy can… Meanwhile, you are going to be learning about English and Greek influences on the Latin word for “write.” See what he’s done to me? You see what he’s done to me? You were going to be learning about Latin and Greek’s influence on the English word to “write.” In fact, I’m sending you over right now to the Latin expert while I go deal with our graffiti artist. Thank you for that. The Latin word for write, as in I write my name or write a book, is scribo. Scriptum in Latin means written. I want you to watch for scrib and script in all of these English words. The first word is scribe. What’s a scribe? A scribe is a copier of documents. We don’t really use this term as much anymore as we used to. It used to be that a scribe would copy the Hebrew scriptures in ancient Israel. In medieval times, scribes would copy official documents. They would copy the scriptures also in Latin or in Greek. They would even copy music sometimes. But nowadays, with the advent of the printing press, we don’t use the word as much. You can use it to refer to a journalist, but it’s sort of an informal term. The next word is inscribe. In in Latin means in. Bet you didn’t see that coming. And scribe means write. Inscribe is to write in something. So, does this mean to write in a book or write in a letter? No, it’s a little more permanent than that. This is permanent writing. This is writing that you do in stone or wood or in metal. They become inscriptions once they’re written into these very hard materials. You might inscribe your name in the back of your phone, for example. That’s not something you just write on the back of your phone. It’s inscribed. That way, if thieves take it, at least they feel bad every time they make a phone call with your phone. The next word is circumscribe. Circumscribe means… “circum” in Latin means “around,” so circumscribe means to draw something around. In geometry, it’s to draw a circle around a shape where the shape is actually touching the borders of the circle. In daily life, we can use the term circumscribed to talk about something that is limited or restricted. For example, your parents might circumscribe your time in front of the TV. They might circumscribe your time in front of the internet, which means to limit or restrict your time in front of the screen. The next word is prescription. A prescription is a written instruction from a doctor for treatment or for medicine. So you go to the doctor, you’re sick, and you say, “Hey, doctor, I’m sick.” And the doctor says, “Yeah, it’s pretty bad. You’re going to need some powerful medicine. I’ll write you a prescription.” Pre in Latin means before and scriptum means write. So this is something written before you get the medicine. Then you take it to the pharmacist, hand it to them. They look at it and say, “Yep, sure enough. You’re pretty sick.” they bring you the medicine after they receive that prescription from the doctor. At this point it gets a little weird because prescription, when they hand you the medicine, prescription can also describe the medicine. So it can be the note from the doctor, the instructions from the doctor, and it can also be the medicine. The next word is proscribe. To proscribe means to forbid or to make illegal. For example, in my town, I don’t know how it is in your town, but in my town, graffitiing on walls is prescribed. Everybody knows you can’t walk around painting on walls with cans of spray paint, it’s prescribed. The next word is subscribe. To subscribe is to sign up to receive something regularly. Like if you want to receive a magazine or a newspaper or a series of videos, then you would subscribe to the magazine, newspaper, or somebody’s YouTube channel. What does that have to do with writing? Well, sub in Latin means below, and scrib means write, so subscribe is to write below. The idea is that you’re signing your name below. You’re saying, “Yes, I’m with this magazine. “I’m signing my name right here below.” To subscribe, by the way, can also mean agree. So let’s say you’ve got a friend in town with some crazy ideas and nobody agrees with him, but you do, then you have subscribed to his ideas.
The next word is conscript. A conscript is a draftee, someone forced to serve in the military. So there’s a big battle going on, the battle’s getting close to your town, the military needs some help, they roll into your town, and they say all 17 and 18 year old boys must join the military, like, right now, ’cause we got a problem. What does that have to do with writing? Well, somebody, one of the officers, is most likely walking around with a pad and paper or a notebook, and he’s putting names in there of the boys who are going to have to go off to war, or the men who are going to have to go off to war.
So, he’s writing their names there, right? Well, if you are drafted in, then your name is written in there with them, and that with is important because con in Latin means with.
So your name is written with theirs, you’re forced to join the military, off you go. The next word is transcribe. To transcribe is to copy someone’s words. It can also be to copy somebody’s music, or to copy ideas or thoughts. So, your crazy friend that has all those ideas that no one subscribes to but you do, you might wanna transcribe his words so you can take ’em home and think about it for a while. Do I really agree with this guy? I don’t know. As he’s talking, the words are coming across and you are writing them down, you’re copying them down. Trans in Latin means across. So to transcribe is to write something down from cross. The next word is scripture. Scripture is from that word scriptum that I mentioned earlier that means written. Scripture is something that is written, but this is not an everyday writing. This is not a grocery list, for example. That is not scripture. This is a sacred text or this is an elevated text, something like the Old and New Testament. In fact, we use the word scripture often to refer to the Old and New Testament or the Bible. The next word is post script. Post in Latin means after and script means write. You know that well by now. So a post script is something written afterwards. You probably know what this is, but you may not have ever seen the connection. Let’s say you’re writing a letter to your friend and you sign the letter sincerely and you write your name and you close the letter and you’re about to send it and then you realize, oh, P.S. I forgot to say something. Well, that P.S. stands for post script. So you open the letter back up and you write PS, which is short for Post Script, and then you write what you were going to tell your friend.
Hey, don’t forget to come to the party this weekend, and don’t forget to bring the frog legs this time. So there you go, guys. 10 English words enhanced by the Roman word scribo or scriptum, which means write. Get out there and use them this week. Back to you at the desk. Oh, it’s very interesting, Post Script. Hey, I’ve got a little PS. You can’t run around graffiti-ing on walls. Everybody knows that. Let’s see what the Greek expert has to say about writing. Hey everybody, let’s look at the Greek word grapho, which means I write in all the English words that come from it. Look for graph in all of these words. And the first one is graph. If you’re in math class and you’re dealing with a bunch of complicated numbers or complicated statistics and your head’s about to explode, it’s easier if you draw it out. If you create a graph. You see graphs all the time in math books. You know what these are. It’s drawn or written out numbers. An autograph. You see a celebrity walking down the street and you think, “Hey, I want something from that person.” So you run up to them and you ask them for an autograph. What are you asking for? Well, graph means write, and auto in Greek means self. So you’re asking for a self-writing. But ask them for an autograph. If you ask for a self-writing, they will know what you’re talking about and they’ll give you a strange look. A biography is a writing about someone’s life. If you’re reading the story of Alexander the Great, famous Greek, you’re reading the writings about his life. Bios in Greek means life, life writing, biography. The next word is geography. This is writing about the earth. It’s writing about the planet, and you’ve probably already figured it out. You know grapho means right. You’ve probably already figured it out that geo in Latin, Not Latin, geo in Greek means earth. So geography is writing about our earth. It’s the study of the surface of our planet. Calligraphy, this is beautiful writing. Like you see here behind me. I can’t write like this. Some people can, not me. My writing is more cacography. We’ll talk about that in a minute. Back to calligraphy. Kalos in Greek means beautiful. So calligraphy is beautiful writing. If you have bad handwriting and you want to defend yourself, you could call it cacography, ’cause no one wants to say, “I have bad handwriting.” It sounds a whole lot better to say, “Yeah, I’m a specialist in cacography.” Cacos in Greek means bad. So you’re really saying, “I have bad handwriting,” but it sounds really good to say, “I’m a specialist in cacography.” Photography is writing done by light, writing drawn by light. What does that mean? So if you’re outside, you see a scene, you wanna take a picture of it, you hold your camera up, you take a picture of it, you now have a photograph.
How was that photograph created in your camera? Honestly, I have no idea. All I know is that the light goes in and somehow it out comes a picture. Well, the light going in, in Greek, light is phos. So it’s writing drawn by light or writing done by light. Photography. In courts, this word stenography is often used. There’s so much going on in a court of law that must be transcribed because it’s official. You gotta get this stuff written down. It’s important when a judge says to a plaintiff or a defendant or a lawyer, here’s my decision, that person’s going to jail. That kind of stuff’s important. It needs to be written down so some people can go back later and read it and say, why did he make that decision? But there’s so much going on, there’s so much information then it would be hard for anybody to write it all down. So they train these people called stenographers in a form of writing that we call shorthand. Stenography comes from grafo, which means right, and stenos, which means narrow. Stenography is shorthand writing. Graphite, you’re familiar with this mineral. Graphite, you’ve been using it all your life. It’s the material, it’s the mineral inside your pencils. It’s what you write with. As a matter of fact, without graphite, your pencils would be pointless. Graffiti is writing done on walls, usually writing done on public walls, public buildings with paint. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s illegal. Don’t do it. And the last word we’re gonna look at is graphic. Look, if you’re reading a novel and you’re a good reader, you like reading, you enjoy it, but honestly, sometimes, you get a little tired of saying words, words, words. You turn the page, more words. You just get tired of it. Your brain’s weary. You want something different. Well, then you might put that novel down and instead pick up the same novel in a graphic version, a graphic novel. This is a novel where everything is illustrated or drawn. You’ve seen this before. I’ve seen “The Hobbit” as a regular novel and I’ve seen “The Hobbit” as a graphic novel. It’s drawn out. It’s illustrated with a pencil or illustrated artistically. So there you go. 10 English words enhanced by the Greek word graph. I could go on, there’s actually a lot more, but it’s time for me to send you back to the studio. Thanks for that, that was very interesting. Did you notice, ladies and gentlemen, that graffiti comes from grapho, which in Greek means right. Where did this come from? He’s here? So he was graffitiing on our walls. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for watching this episode of Word Up. You now have 20 new English words derived from Latin and Greek that you can use as you’re out there in the world. Get out there, use them, sound smarter. But ladies and gentlemen, don’t use them on walls. Is he still here? I wanna talk to him. [MUSIC]