Along with suffixes and prefixes, roots (root words) are the building blocks of our words in the English language. Learning suffixes, prefixes, and roots will enable you to look at many words you may not know and determine their meanings.
Let me provide a bit of an example. Let’s say you run across the word pentarchy. Even without context clues, can you take a guess of what it means based on the word itself? Pent means five, as in a pentagon, right? What about archy? Think about other words you might know that end in archy. Recently we’ve heard the word oligarchy a lot. What if you don’t know exactly what that is, though? Let’s think of another word that ends in archy. What about monarchy? A monarchy is generally rule by a person called a monarch. And patriarchy is some sort of rule–whether familial or government–by males which makes sense. (We’ll talk more about the root pat and patriarchy, paternity, paternal, and patriot later.) Does it make sense that a pentarchy is five joint rulers or alternatively five governments ruled by individual rulers? Maybe you still can’t name a specific pentarchy, but you have a better idea what it is before you ever look it up, and you’re more likely to understand and remember what the term is in the future–like on a test.
Let me be candid: Sometimes I have a hard time understanding which parts of words are prefixes and which ones are roots. I’m not sure distinguishing the two is always a necessary skill. In the example above, is archy the root and pent the prefix? I think so. But if you look at the word and think it’s two roots thrown together but still get the gist of the word, does it really matter? I would say no, but I’ll gladly listen to arguments otherwise.
For now, learn the suffixes. Learn the prefixes. Learn the roots. (Also, learn another language. I remember being a sophomore in high school and learning the French word salut and having a light bulb moment about the words salutation and salute.) Doing so will enable you to piece together words and meaning better than you ever dreamed.
Next up? Start learning sets of roots.
