Latin in Everyday Life

A) This week I experienced Latin in my Biology class. The word biology has the root- Bio,
which means life. We are learning about mitosis and one of the main functions of mitosis
is the breakdown of the cytoplasm. Cyt, the root, comes from the Latin word Cell. We are
also talking about monosaccharides—Mono, the Latin root, means one.
B) In Roman history, many times I hear the Latin root Aqua which means water. In Ancient
Rome they used aqueducts to transport water from one place to another. I was reading an
article online about Ancient Rome and I came across the word.
C) Some of my friends go to Jesuit and play lacrosse. Their motto is Legatum which means
bequest, legacy, entrust, or commander. Everyone in their fan section wears a t-shirt that
says this, and I think it is really cool.
D) Another thing we use frequently that has a Latin root that we don’t realize is Jur. We see
this in the word Jury which deals with the law. When talking about the government roles
in history we always come across the judicial branch and I never take into consideration
that there is Latin everywhere.
E) In many classes this year we have had vocab quizzes. People don’t realize that the word
vocab is broken up into parts. The root, voc, means word or name. I think this is cool
because it is used almost every day in class, but we don’t realize it.

I really do appreciate Latin and think it is great for the world. I see Latin every day and I
sometimes understand many things I hear very frequently. I see Latin in my ACT testing prep, in
my core classes at Parish, and just little things that people say to me. Latin has helped my
understanding of many words and I am very glad I take Latin and I know I will use it for most of my life.

Bryson Boyette