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Saint Ignatius High School

Etymology Word of the Week

Director of Admissions Pat O'Rourke '90, a self-proclaimed "word nerd," brings you his Etymology Word of the Week. Every other week he presents an online Etymology lesson just for fun!

Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd."  Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast.  Here then is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.  

Eureka - “exclamation of triumph at a discovery.”  From the Greek verb heureka meaning “I have found (it)” - reportedly shouted by Archimedes when, after a long study, he discovered that dishonest goldsmiths had used an alloy in the king’s crown.  (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)

RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – heuristic - I’m not a math guy, but I stumbled upon this word while going down a wormhole about “game theory.”

SAMPLE SENTENCE:  “Did you know that ‘Eureka’ is the state motto of California?”