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.  

Erode - “to gnaw; to eat into or eat away; to destroy by slow consumption or disintegration.”  From the Latin preposition ex meaning “from, down from, out of” and the Latin verb rodere meaning “to gnaw, eat, scratch” (all information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com).

RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – erosion, rodent, corrode/corrosion

SAMPLE SENTENCE - “The ‘boy who cried wolf’ had a tendency to fib, thus eroding other people’s confidence in him.”  

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE:  “Share the credit, take the blame.”