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.  

Encourage - “to inspire with spirit or confidence; to stimulate by assistance, approval, etc.”  From the French encoragier meaning “make strong, hearten” from the prefix en- meaning “make, put in” and the noun corage meaning “courage, heart.”  The Latin stem is cor, cordis meaning “heart.”  (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)

RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – accord, cardiac, concord, cordial, core, discord

SENTENCE - The most important thing that a teacher can do is to encourage his or her students to keep trying and never give up.