Page 331 - Word Power Made Easy: The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary

root on which the verb endorse (en-DAWRS′) is built.

If you endorse a check, you sign it on the back side; if you endorse a plan, an idea, etc.,
you back it, you express your approval or support. The noun is endorsement (en-DAWRS′-
mƏnt).

2. the noise and the fury

Vociferous derives from Latin vox, vocis, voice (a root you met in Chapter 9), plus fero, to
bear or carry. A vociferous rejoinder carries a lot of voice—i.e., it is vehement, loud, noisy,
clamorous, shouting. The noun is vociferousness (vō-SIF′-Ə-rƏs-nƏs); the verb is to vociferate
(vō-SIF′-Ə-rayt′). Can you form the noun derived from the verb? __________________.

3. to sleep or not to sleep—that is the question

The root fero is found also in somniferous (som-NIF′-Ə-rƏs), carrying, bearing, or bringing

sleep. So a somniferous lecture is so dull and boring that it is sleep-inducing.
Fero is combined with somnus, sleep, in somniferous. (The su x -ous indicates what part
of speech? __________________.)
Tack on the negative pre x in- to somnus to construct insomnia (in-SOM′-nee-Ə), the

abnormal inability to fall asleep when sleep is required or desired. The unfortunate victim
of this disability is an insomniac (in-SOM′-nee-ak), the adjective is insomnious (in-SOM′-
nee-Əs). (So -ous, in case you could not answer the question in the preceding paragraph, is
an adjective suffix.)
Add a di erent adjective su x to somnus to derive somnolent (SOM′-nƏ-lƏnt), sleepy,

drowsy. Can you construct the noun form of somnolent? __________________ or__________________.
Combine somnus with ambulo, to walk, and you have somnambulism (som-NAM′-byƏ-
liz-Əm), walking in one’s sleep. With your increasing skill in using etymology to form

words, write the term for the person who is a sleepwalker.__________________. Now add to the
word you wrote a two-letter adjective su x we have learned, to form the adjective:
__________________.

4. a walkaway

An ambulatory (AM′-byƏ-lƏ-taw′-ree) patient, as in a hospital or convalescent home, is
nally well enough to get out of bed and walk around. A perambulator (pƏ-RAM′-byƏ-lay′-
tƏr), a word used more in England than in the United States, and often shortened to pram,
is a baby carriage, a vehicle for walking an infant through the streets (per-, through). To

perambulate (pƏ-RAM′-byƏ-layt′) is, etymologically, “to walk through”; hence, to stroll
around. Can you write the noun form of this verb? __________________.
To amble (AM′-bƏl) is to walk aimlessly; an ambulance is so called because originally it

was composed of two stretcher-bearers who walked o the battle eld with a wounded
soldier; and a preamble (PREE′-am-bƏl) is, by etymology, something that “walks before”