William Barr quotes Mueller as saying that he has not exonerated Trump. This got me thinking about the word "exonerated," which seemed to me related to "onerous," and thence to "onus." To exonerate is to lift a burden [onus] from someone. That led me to think of "excruciating," which means "from the cross" and describes Jesus' pain when he was crucified, i.e. nailed on a cross or crux. I then thought of explode, and implode, of exact, extirpate, and examine.
I read once that English has several times as many words as French. Some of them are truly delicious.
Nor has Trump been exculpated.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's "impeach": < late Latin impedicāre to catch, entangle (Ammianus), < im- (IM- prefix1) + pedica fetter, < pēs, ped-em foot. Crudely, to trip up.
ReplyDeleteAs most people probably know, English has so many words because unlike French which only has a Latin root, English has a Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) root and a Latin root (Normand French).
ReplyDeleteSo English has "freedom" and "liberty", the first being Germanic and the second being from Latin.
You left out one of your favorites: decimate.--Fritz Poebel
ReplyDeleteI read once that English has several times as many words as French.
ReplyDelete