Bridget - - You received some good information from our colleagues, but, Cara Dea, no one, up to this point, answered your first question.# (1) about the source Latin verb meaning " to say". As you correctly surmised, there is such a Latin verb - dico, dicere, dixi, dictus - "to say" or "to speak" - which word serves as a base for words of similar meaning in French and, I think, other Romance languages.