Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Wordsmith Wednesday

Root:

gravis, grav, griev - Latin (adj) - heavy, serious, weighty

Derivatives:

gravity (adj) - seriousness; weightiness; importance

gravitate (v) - to pull by force or weight

aggravate (v) - to make more serious or heavy

grave (adj) - of a serious nature (the burial "grave" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "grafan," not this Latin root...FYI)

grief (n) - heaviness of spirit

grievance (adj) - a weighty hardship, complaint or injustice

Now, ya'll don't let Joanie win it unchallenged this week! At least give her some competition. Or are ya'll tired of playing this game? Sentences, please...or other derivatives (there ARE more!).

4 comments:

Bobber said...

As the small asteroid gravitated towards the earth, little did anyone know the grief that it might cause if it hit. The engineers at NASA, realizing the gravity of the situation, were prepared to file a grievance with the interplanetary object debris commission. But unfortunately, such an entity does not exist. Thus they decided to write a paper and give it to the President so that he might act on the grave threat represented by such objects and create a new government office to deal with it. After all, without government solutions, problems will only be aggravated by lack of attention.

Inspired by this news story.

Alicia said...

gravity (n) - physical phenomenon responsible for giving material objects weight. Whereby, two objects are attracted to one another creating the experience of weight.

Interesting that "grave" (as in where we're buried), is unrelated etymologically. Because death and the grave are very weighty/serious subjects.

Alicia said...

engrave (v) - to impress deeply, or permanently, as into metal or stone. As in, to press with much weight.

Lori Waggoner said...

Bobber - Sweeeet! Very entertaining...thanks for playing along even though you're not one of "the gals"!!

Alicia - A+ for you, dear. And I agree about death and the grave. I initially assumed there was a connection, which prompted me to check it out. It certainly fits the category, though.