Acquiring a Scientific Vocabulary

A Short Course for Building Lexical Literacy for Advancing AP and College Students

Anthony M. Belmont

• Publisher: BrownWalker Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781627347334
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Literacy
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

A short course specifically designed for high school AP science students and college freshmen or sophomores in any science courses to provide an understanding of how scientific terminology is composed and to give students a 'ballpark' knowledge of terms t

Combining Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes

Lesson 1: Numerical Prefixes and Roots Pertaining to Animal Parts

In this, and in each of the following lessons, you will be presented with a group of prefixes, roots, and suffixes and their meanings. As a student, you must master four problems: spelling, pronunciation, definition, and how to combine the word parts to form words properly and to define them properly. After you have learned the spelling, pronunciation, and definition for the word parts, you will be required to combine the parts to form words and then to define these words. You should take special care that the definitions which you make are phrased in sensible English. For example, if you are given the word parts hyper, a prefix meaning “above,” “excess,” or “over,” mast, a root meaning “breast,” ation, a suffix meaning “act or process; result of act or process; state or condition,” and you combined them to form the word hypermast(a)tion, you would not write the definition as “over breast act or process,” but as “the process of the breast becoming too large,” hyper having the sense of “excess.” Nor would you define the word ichthyologist (ichthy-root meaning “fish,” (o)log(y)-suffix meaning “the science of, or study of,” and ist-suffix meaning “one who does, acts, or performs”) as “fish science one who does” but as “a person who studies fish.” (Note: The letters in hypermastation and the letters o and y in parentheses in (o)log(y} are to show that these letters are not parts of the roots or prefixes or suffixes but are used to make the pronunciation of the words easier.) Always make your definition sensible; for after all, that is the purpose of a definition.

The word parts which are included in the following lessons are by no means comprehensive. Only those which are most commonly used will be listed. Some forms from Greek, Latin, or other foreign sources may be omitted, and no attempt will be made to identify the parent language because these lessons and exercises are designed to provide a quick and useful vocabulary, and they are not intended to be so technical as to obscure this purpose.

More Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes

amphi(o)*, duplic(i), didymo, diplo, double, both, two (amphibian bios: double life – an organism which lives a double life, on land and in water).

bi, di, dip lo, du(o) – two, double both (binary-consisting of two parts).

centi, hecato – one-hundred, or one-hundredth (centimeter-one-hundredth of a meter). deca(im) – ten (decathlon-ten event athletic contest).

di, diplo, du{o) – double, two both (diamine – compound containing two amino groups; diploblastic – having two genn layers; duple – having two elements). didymo – double (didymous – growing in pairs).

dodeca – twelve (dodecaphonic – twelve toes).

duodecim – twelve (duodecimal – a scale of twelve).

duplic(i) – double duplicate – two corresponding or identical parts

ennea, novem – nine: (ennead – a group of nine).

egui – equal (equinox – nights of equal length).

eury – broad, many, wide (euryphagous – feeding on many hosts)

hapl(o) – single (haploid – having a single set of chromosomes)

heca(to), hect(o) – one hundred, many (hectogram – 100 grams)

hemi, semi – one-half (hemisphere – one-half of a sphere).

hendeca, undecim – eleven (hendcasyllabic – having eleven syllables).

hept(a), septem(n) – seven (heptagynous – having seven pistils).

hol(o) – complete, total, whole (holotrichous – unifonn covering of hair over who 1 e body).

macr(o) – large, long (macropodous – having a long foot or a long stalk).

*Letters which are most often used with word parts as alternate spellings for easier pronunciation when used in different combinations will be given in the following manner: amphi(o). This will indicate that in some combinations the letter replaces the final letter or is used in combination with the final letter, e.g. amphi, ampho, or amphio.

medi(us}, meso – middle (median – the middle value in an order of values).

mega(l) – one-million, large (megaphyllous – having large leaves).

meso thorax – middle, middle segment of the insect thorax).

mil(li) – one-thousand or. thousandth (millimeter – one-thousandth of a meter).

mon (o), uni – one, alone, only, single (monogeny – producing offspring of only one sex).

mult(i), -many (multiocular – having many eyes).

novem(n) – nine (November – ninth month).

oct(a,o) – eight (octopod – an eight armed (footed) cephalopod mollusk).

omn(i) – all (omnivore – an animal which feeds on both animal and vegetable matter).

pent(-a,o), quinque – five (pentadactyic having five fingers).

poly – many guadr(a,i,o,u), tetra – four (quadruped – an animal having four feet). guingue, guint – five or fifth (guinguecostate – a leaf with five ribs).

semi – one-half, partly (semicaudate – having only a rudimentary tail or only one-half or part of a tail).

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Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Review of Spelling Rules
• Plurals, Possessives, Hyphens
• Pronunciation Rules
• Forming Plurals of Scientific Nouns
• Combining Affixes and Root Words
• Commonly Used Abbreviations and Symbols
• Lesson 1 - Numerical Prefixes and Roots Pertaining to Animal Parts
• Lesson 2 - Parts of Speech Review, Prefixes Denoting Position and/or Order, Roots – Body Parts
• Lesson 3 - Animal and Vegetable Substances
• Lesson 4 - Roots Denoting Body Parts, Chemical Suffixes
• Lesson 5 - Roots Denoting Colors
• Lesson 6 - Roots Denoting Habitats
• A Glossary of Word Roots and Combining Forms