Pandemic Ending
July 26, 2021
In recent posts, we discussed two ancient Greek roots of the word “pandemic”: “pan-” (“all, every, entire”), and “demos” (“people”). Now let’s examine the “-ic” ending of “pandemic” … and in that spirit, here’s to completely ending the Covid pandemic!
The suffix “-ic” comes from Greek “ikos” (Latin form “icus”; early English form “ick” or “ik”), meaning “pertaining to, related to.”
Even though its roots are ancient, “pandemic” is relatively recent, inspired by an earlier word: “epidemic,” from Greek “epi” (“among, upon”) and “demos” (“people”). An “epidemic disease” spreads quickly and widely “among people,” but a “pandemic disease” is much broader, affecting an entire country or even the world, as we all know too well. These words started as adjectives, and later became common as nouns.
According to Etymonline (see source note below), several hundred years ago, English nouns for many subjects of study ended in “-ic”: “arithmetic, logic, magic, music, rhetoric.” Words for academic subjects that emerged later often ended in “-ics” (inspired by the original Greek “ikos”), like “mathematics, linguistics, economics, politics,” and “academics” itself.
Interestingly, the earlier “-ic” subjects continue mostly as non-count nouns (no plural form), while the later “-ics” subjects tend to be either non-count or plural. For example:
- Logic is a useful tool (non-count) — not “logics”
- Politics is a hot topic (non-count) — not “my politic”
- My politics are different from yours (plural) — but not countable with numbers: not “two politics”
Such “-ics” subjects often have “-ic” adjective forms:
— athletics (N), athletic (ADJ)
— aerobics (N), aerobic (ADJ)
— genetics (N), genetic (ADJ)
— robotics (N), robotic (ADJ)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Other “-ic” words more likely to countable may act as both nouns (with final “s” for plurals) and adjectives:
— an epic (N), many epics, an epic (ADJ) journey
— a romantic (person-N), a couple of romantics, a romantic (ADJ) comedy
— a plastic (N), various plastics, a plastic (ADJ) toy
— an acrylic (N), several acrylics, acrylic (ADJ) paint
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Some “-ic” words are adjectives only, not nouns, like:
— energetic
— manic
— tragic
— toxic
— sonic
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Do you know these words’ noun forms? Test yourself by filling in the missing letters below:
— energ_
— mani_
— trag_ _ _
— toxi_
— so_ _ _
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Occasionally, an “-ic” word works well as a noun or a verb:
— panic (recall the Greek god Pan’s glee in spreading needless fear!)
— picnic
— traffic
— mimic
— frolic
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
When used in “-ed” or “-ing” forms, “-ic” verbs add a “k” to avoid being pronounced like “ice” (as in “iced tea” or “icing on a cake”): “panicked, picnicking, trafficked, mimicking, frolicked.”
But wait — some “-ic” endings in this last group do NOT come from our Greek root. Take a look at the etymology of “picnic,” “traffic,” and “frolic” (think fun!) on your own.
SOURCE for information in this post: Etymonline, the Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com: “pandemic,” “epidemic,” “-ic,” “-ics,” “picnic,” “traffic,” “mimic,” “frolic” and related entries).
A version of this article appeared as a post on NYU’s English Language Institute blog on July 23, 2021.
Power to the “Demos”!
July 20, 2021
In a recent post, we explored the Greek root “pan-” that begins the word “pandemic.” Now let’s look at the second root in that word, also from ancient Greek: “demos,” meaning “ordinary citizens, common people.”
“Demos” appears as “dem” or “demo” in key English words like “democracy,” whose suffix “-cracy” is from Greek “kratos, -kratia,” meaning “rule, strength, power, authority.” Several important words end in “-cracy” (meaning “power structure, government by”) and the related “-crat” (“person holding that power or participating in that system”).
As you can see, “democracy” means “people power.” President Abraham Lincoln aptly expressed it as “government of the people, by the people, for the people” in an eloquent speech he made in 1863, known as the Gettysburg Address.
Look up the roots of the “-cracy”/“-crat” words below — this will reinforce your comprehension & long-term memory of them:
aristocracy / aristocrat
autocracy / autocrat
bureaucracy / bureaucrat
meritocracy / (“-crat” form is not common … yet!)
plutocracy / plutocrat
technocracy / technocrat
Another word featuring “dem/demo” is “demography,” whose suffix comes from Greek “-graphia,” meaning “description of.” So “demography” means “description of the people [in a particular place].” In English, we often use the form “demographics,” which are statistics of measurable aspects of a population, like age, marital status, income & education levels.
By the way, “-graphia” comes from the Greek verb “grapho,” meaning “write, draw, scratch.” Inherent in writing/drawing is the idea of recording information, so the English suffixes “-graph,” “-graphy” & “-graphic” express some aspect of recording or describing. Think about that when you see words like “photograph” (“photo” is from a Greek noun meaning “light”) and “geography” (“geo” refers to “world, land”; also from ancient Greek).
“Graph” and “graphic” are not only suffixes; they stand alone as individual words in English, as you probably know from developing visual aids for presentations at work or in school!
Now take “dem” and add the Greek “agogos,” meaning “leader,” and you get “demagogue.” A leader of the people? Yes … but in this case, “a leader of the mob”: a political manipulator who exploits people’s “prejudices, wishes, ignorance, and passions,” according to Etymonline (see source note below).
The word “demon,” meaning “supernatural spirit, evil spirit,” also comes from ancient Greek, but from a different root (“daimon,” not “demos”). English author John Milton combined “demon” with the prefix “pan-” (discussed in our recent post) to create the word “pandemonium.” Interestingly, the pre-Greek heritage of “daimon” & “demos” is closely related.
Another word unrelated to “demos” is “demonstrate” — it’s from Latin, not Greek, and it’s a cousin of the word “monster”! If you’re interested, research the etymologies of “demon,” “pandemonium” & “demonstrate” on your own.
SOURCES for information included in this post: Etymonline, the Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com: “dēmotic,” “-cracy,” “-graphy,” “demagogue,” “pandemonium,” “photo-,” “geo,” “demonstrate” & related entries); English Wiktionary (en.wiktionary.org: “dēmos,” “demon,” “-graphy” & related entries); English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org: “Gettysburg Address” & related entries).
A version of this article appeared as a post on NYU’s English Language Institute blog on July 15, 2021.
Words With “Pan-” Roots
July 10, 2021
With the Covid pandemic beginning to subside, we can breathe a little easier & wonder about things like: What does “pandemic” mean, anyway?
Many English words have their roots in ancient Greek and Latin. “Pandemic” consists of three Greek word-parts:
“pan,” meaning “all,” “every,” “entire”
“demos” (reduced form “dem”), meaning “people“
“ikos” (Latin form “icus”; early English form “ick” or “ik”), meaning “pertaining to”
As you can see from these roots, the original sense of “pandemic” is something “affecting all people.” As the word developed, it became associated with diseases spreading across entire populations.
If you can recognize roots in new vocabulary words you’re hearing or reading, you’ll be able to guess their meanings and remember them longer. Hundreds of English words include one of these three Greek roots: “pan”, “dem,” and “ic” (modern English form of “ikos”).
Let’s talk more about “pan” today, and the other two roots of “pandemic” in follow-up posts.
The “all” meaning of “pan” arises when “pan” is a prefix: a word-part appearing at the beginning of words. Sometimes this prefix is attached with a hyphen, as in “pan-American” or “pan-African.” In these cases, “pan-” means “affecting all parts of,” “across all of,” or “relating to all people described as.”
Other words with the prefix “pan” do not feature a hyphen. Can you guess the meanings of the words below?
panacea (“acea” comes from Greek “akos, akeia,” meaning “cure”)
panorama (“orama” comes from Greek “horama,” meaning “sight, spectacle,” and Greek verb “horan,” meaning “to look, to see”)
pantheon (“theon” comes from Greek “theios,” meaning “of/for the gods,” and “theos,” meaning “god”)
Another cultural & linguistic legacy from ancient Greek is “Pan” (with a capital “P”): a god imagined with a man’s upper body, a goat’s lower parts, and goat-horns on his head! Embodying nature, Pan was the god of shepherds & herd animals, forests & fields, wild places & rustic music, and was associated with sex, fertility & spring.
“Pan” appears in the word “panic,” originally meaning “pertaining to Pan.” The ancient Greeks believed Pan made “mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots,” according to Etymonline (see source note below).
Other ancient languages produced “pan” meanings unrelated to Greek (or with complex or less direct connections to Greek), which appear in nouns like “pan” (as in “frying pan,” “pancake”), “panda,” “panache,” and several meanings of the verb “to pan.” If you’re interested, research the histories of those words on your own! The etymological notes (very brief word histories) at the end of a dictionary definition can help you learn & remember new vocabulary; etymology is the study of the origins & evolving meanings of words.
SOURCES for information included in this post: Etymonline, the Online Etymology Dictionary (etymonline.com: “pan,” “dēmos,” “ikos” & related entries); English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org: “Pan (god)” & related entries).
A version of this article appeared as a post on NYU’s English Language Institute blog on July 8, 2021.
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