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.

Admission

Definition: “the act of allowing someone to enter (as with a college); entrance granted by permission, by provision, or by monetary means (as in purchasing a ticket); OR, the confession or acknowledgment of an error, charge, or crime.”  

Origin/Derivation: From the Latin preposition ad meaning “to, toward” and the Latin verb mitto, mittere, misi, missum meaning “to send, let go” 

Related Words/Phrases: transmit/transmission, permit/permission, mission, missile, commit/commission, manumission (to free from slavery), dismiss, intermittent/intermission, emit/emission, omit/omission, remit/remission, submit/submission, and many more!


Two different types of admission...

(All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)



“Old Saw” of the Week:
See if you can “complete the phrase” of this time-worn (but true!) adage:

“A chain is only as strong as... 


its weakest link."