Horace G. Danner's A Thesaurus of English Word Roots is a compendium of
the most-used word roots of the English language. As Timothy B. Noone
notes in his foreword: "Dr. Danner's book allows you not only to build
up your passive English vocabulary, resulting in word recognition
knowledge, but also gives you the rudiments for developing your active
English vocabulary, making it possible to infer the meaning of words
with which you are not yet acquainted. Your knowledge can now expand and
will do so exponentially as your awareness of the roots in English words
and your corresponding ability to decode unfamiliar words grows apace.
This is the beginning of a fine mental linguistic library: so enjoy!" In
A Thesaurus of English Word Roots, all word roots are listed
alphabetically, along with the Greek or Latin words from which they
derive, together with the roots' original meanings. If the current
meaning of an individual root differs from the original meaning, that is
listed in a separate column. In the examples column, the words which
contain the root are then listed, starting with their prefixes, for
example, dysacousia, hyperacousia. These root-starting terms then are
followed by terms where the root falls behind the word, e.g.,
acouesthesia and acoumeter. These words are followed by words where the
root falls in the middle or the end, as in such terms as bradyacusia and
odynacusis.. In this manner, A Thesaurus of English Word Roots places
the word in as many word families as there are elements in the word.
This work will interest linguists and philologists and anyone interested
in the etymological aspects of English language.
