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.
Chiropractic - “in reference to the curing of diseases by the manipulation of the spine or other bodily structures (loosely means ‘done by hand’).” From the Latin prefix chiro- meaning “hand” (which comes from the Greek kheiro-) and the Latin adjective practicus meaning “done, to be done, active, applied, fit for action, effective“ (again from the Greek, in this case praktikos) (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)
RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – chiropractor, Chiroptera (the order of mammals such as Bats - the word means “winged hands” and is related to Pterodactyl); practical, practice, practitioner, malpractice
SAMPLE SENTENCE: “After I wrenched my back trying to crush my drives off the tee, my golf buddies suggested that I see a chiropractor.”