Reunion Weekend: June 2-4, 2023

All alumni are invited to join us back on campus for Reunion Weekend the first weekend in June.

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.  

Prince - “a non-reigning male member of a royal family; a son or grandson of a king or queen.”  From the Latin noun princeps, principis meaning “chief, leader, first person.”  Princeps itself is a mash-up of the ordinal numeral primus, -a, -um meaning “first” and the verb capio, capere, cepi, captum meaning “to take, seize, capture.”    (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)

RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – principal, principle, prime, princely (sum), princess, Princeton (prince’s town); accept, captivate, conception, deception, except, inception, intercept, perception, reception, and many more.

SAMPLE SENTENCE - “Prince was a multi-talented musician and singer who was also a pretty decent basketball player in his day.”

DID YOU KNOW?  Here are some songs written by Prince that were more famously recorded by other artists:
“Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor
“Manic Monday” by The Bangles
“I Feel for You” by Chaka Khan
“The Glamorous Life” by Sheila E.
“Jungle Love” by Morris Day and The Time
“How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?” by Alicia Keys