Overmorrow refers to the day after tomorrow and I feel like it comes in quite handy for example.

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
1 point

A lot of words in English have a Germanic and Latin version. The Germanic one tends to be more common in everyday use, while the Latin one tends to be more formal, a consequence of French being the language of the aristocracy back in the day. Spanish is all Latin-derived, so they would of course be the everyday words.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Confusing and confused comment.

English indeed belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family i.e. has german it its core structure and basic vocabulary (pronouns, basic verbs, nouns). Also some idiomatic expressions are also rooted in its Germanic heritage.

Latin influence primarily came through old English (Latin via christianity) and middle English when the Normans invaded England. This Latin is mainly in areas like law, governance, religion and literature. It’s estimated that over 60% of modern English vocabulary is derived from Latin, often via French.

Greek is everywhere in the fields of science, medicine, philosophy, and the arts. It makes up a smaller percentage compared to Latin—perhaps around 10% of the English vocabulary, though it forms the basis of many complex and specialized terms.

A modern German speaker might recognize some English words with Germanic roots, but the recognition is often less obvious due to centuries of language evolution.

For Greek speakers, recognizing Greek-derived words in English is significantly easier and straightforward. This is because the words have been adopted verbatim, with barely any transformation. And these words usually fall in the category of more academic, high-level English.

In the parent comment for example, 4 out of 6 words are purely Greek (Cacography, Epeolatry, Kakistocracy, Oikophilia).

permalink
report
parent
reply

Asklemmy

!asklemmy@lemmy.ml

Create post

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it’s welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Icon by @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de

Community stats

  • 9.9K

    Monthly active users

  • 5.6K

    Posts

  • 308K

    Comments