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OP "The Latin word for insect is insectum, but the Romans did not "invent" this arthropodan term. The Greeks did.
Insectum is actually the Latin translation of Greek entomon, which is from Greek [en- ("in") + tomos ("cutting")].
So, both the Latin and the Greek words for insect mean "cut into parts." Now you know why entomologists are
people who study insects.
You might recognize the Latin root sect in other "cutting" words like section, dissect, and vivisection. You might
also recognize the Greek root tom- in words like atom ("un-cut-able"), tome (a word for a big book, which came
from the fact that Greek books were made out of sections of papyrus), or appendecTOMy. (An appendectomy is
an operation to cut out the appendix. There are lots of surgical operations with tom- as part of their names.) You
might not realize it, but even the word tmesis, a grammatical term, has the root tom- hidden behind it. To find
out how, check out the entries for tmesis and tome in Webster's Third. "
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted From Caroline's Corner wwh 11/08/02 07:58 PM Caroline's Corner : ??? emanuela 11/10/02 07:51 AM Re: Caroline's Corner : ??? AnnaStrophic 11/13/02 01:57 PM Re: Caroline's Corner : ??? wwh 11/13/02 02:41 PM Re: From Caroline's Corner Wordwind 11/14/02 12:47 AM Re: From Caroline's Corner wwh 11/14/02 02:15 AM Re: From Caroline's Corner Wordwind 11/14/02 02:22 AM Re: Tomahawk Faldage 11/14/02 11:37 AM
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