Thursday, May 22, 2008

Word Pairs

In reference to the discussion in the comments here.

Some more word-pairs in English that mean pretty much the same thing, and are etymologically identical in sense, but one is native and the other is in or from Latin

manslaughter - homicide
accident - befall
accuse - gainsay
omnipotent - almighty
preface - forword
annual - yearly
anonymous - nameless
apathetic - unfeeling
vocation - calling
sanctity - holiness
affair - ado
alien - other

A more obscure one is:

companion - mate

And a Latin - Greek pair:

compassion - sympathy

And some compound Latin words that have sense-pairs in common English two-word phrases:

abstain - hold off
accumulate - pile up
admire - wonder at

Anyone think of more?

Labels: