in general I don't grasp the logic of forbidding the combination of Greek and Latin roots to form a new word.I was not castigating
aliterate for its mixed classical heritage. It does not bother me at all to see or use words like television or hexadecimal. I was just saying that the prefix
a- is of Greek origin and not of Latin origin as Anu stated in his etymology.
What would be the more etymologically pure form, anyway?Not sure about what purity and etymology have to do with one another. I am reminded of a great quotation from the early days of the Internet:
The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle [sic] their pockets for new vocabulary.
The word would be
aliterate. If you want to have word that uses only Latin affixes and roots, you could use the more common
illiterate. Another mixed one I mentioned earlier in this thread would be the semi-pseudo-mixed
unlettered. Or you could use the delightful (and totally Greek, man)
analphabetic.
[Fixed typo.]
