Words with family ties

Can you use "isle" and "island" interchangeably? No one is sure

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Let’s play an etymology game! You’ll guess whether these pairs of words share the same root. Take "road" and "root," for instance. They look alike and make us think of paths and directions. You can almost hear the evolution: road, route, root. But are they related? Not at all. They come from different language origins. So, do you think you can pass the test with these next couplings?

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Some linguistic experts sustain that "isle" and "island" are synonyms, while others argue that "isle" is used to refer to smaller portions of land. Carrying that logic, some people believe that "isle" is simply a shortened version of "island." Do you?

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Surprise! They’re strangers. Or at least they were, for centuries. "Isle" comes from the Latin insula, while "island" hails from Old English īegland ("water-land"). Interestingly, in the 16th century, the "s" was added to the English word to make it resemble its Latin cousin. While their roots are different, most people agree that, in practice, they function as synonyms.

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There’s a lot tying these two together. A capital city is often considered the "head" of a country. Capital letters? They go at the "head" of a sentence. What about capital punishment—doesn’t that come from the idea of "losing your head"? And "capital" begins with "cap," which is, after all, something you wear on your head.

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The truth? Yes! They’re distant cousins through Proto-Indo-European roots. Both trace back to kaput, an ancient root meaning "head." Latin followed one path—caput eventually became _capital_—while the Germanic languages took another, with haubudam evolving into head.

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Octo means eight in Latin, after all. An octopus has eight legs. An octagon has eight sides. It all adds up… except that October is the tenth month, not the eighth. Can you draw any conclusions yet?

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Of course, they are related. October was once the eighth month—in the old Roman calendar, that is. Back then, the year started in March, making October month number—you guessed it—eight. When January and February were added to the beginning of the calendar, October was pushed to tenth place, but the name stuck.

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They look alike. They sound alike. They even feel like they should mean something similar. Sometimes, it takes people a few seconds to tell them apart. "Casual" suggests a lack of formality, while "causal" refers to causes and effects. So maybe both words have something to do with randomness or natural flow?

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Not really! "Casual" comes from the Latin casualis, meaning "by chance," which itself comes from casus ("fall" or "accident"). Causal, on the other hand, traces back to causa, Latin for "cause" or "reason." They’re not twins—just linguistic relatives wearing oddly similar suits.

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Both are authority figures. They guide, explain, and instruct. Plus, they often share the title "Doctor" in academic settings. Even in terms of usage, the boundaries blur: a doctoral advisor teaches, and a teacher may hold a doctorate.

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Yes! They do share a Latin root in the verb docēre, which means "to teach" or "to instruct." In fact, doctor originally meant "teacher" in Latin—it referred to someone skilled or knowledgeable before the term took on its medical and academic meanings.

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Tsar, Czar, Kaiser… these imperial titles all echo "Caesar." Both words refer to rulers, command, and absolute authority. Historically, the Tsars of Russia and the Kaisers of Germany even styled themselves as heirs to the Roman Empire. And there’s a strong phonetic resemblance, too.

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Of course, one came from the other. Tsar (also spelled czar) comes directly from Caesar, the surname of Julius Caesar, whose name became a title for emperors in ancient Rome. As the prestige of Rome spread, so did the word: Kaiser in German and tsar in Slavic languages.

Have you ever used these terms?

Can you be "ept," or just "inept"? The riddle of unpaired words

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Do you know what "unpaired words" are? They are terms we assume should exist, based on standard linguistic rules, but don’t. For example, if "nonverbal" is the opposite of "verbal," shouldn’t "nonchalant" be the opposite of "chalant"? As it turns out, it’s not so simple. To test your knowledge and learn more about unpaired words, we’ve crafted a game where you’ll have to guess: Do these words exist, or have we played around by subtracting or replacing their prefixes and suffixes? Game on!

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If ruthless means lacking compassion, shouldn’t an empathetic person be ruthful?

Ruthful does exist. Indeed, ruth is a noun referring to sorrow or compassion, originating from Old English hrēow, meaning "pity." While ruthful was once a common word for "compassionate," it has mostly fallen out of use.

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Innocent means someone is guiltless, or it can refer to their naiveté. But can someone be nocent?

Yes! The term nocent exists. Derived from Latin nocens (meaning "guilty" or "harmful"), nocent was historically used to mean "criminal" or "harmful." Granted, it is rare today. But it does appear in older legal and literary texts.

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Can the same rule of innocent apply to inept? If an inept person lacks skill, does ept mean they "enjoy aptitude"? Inept comes from the Latin ineptus (unsuited, absurd), but Latin had no standalone eptus.

Ept is recognized by some dictionaries, but you could call it a made-up word. It was only in modern texts in English that writers began jokingly playing around with ept and eptitude. So, can you use ept in a Scrabble game? That’s for you and the other players to decide!

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One can be dissatisfied or satisfied, and one can be disgruntled. But can one be gruntled?

Surprisingly, gruntled does exist! It’s an old-fashioned word meaning "pleased, contented." It originates from the verb gruntle, meaning "to grumble". Over time, the prefix dis- took on an intensifying role rather than forming a strict opposite. The word gruntled was revived in the 20th century, mostly for humorous effect.

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Disheveled means messy or disordered. It comes from the Old French deschevelé ("with disordered hair"). Does that mean sheveled describes neatness?

Well, sheveled is an extinct word. It was created by aphesis, which means it was derived from disheveled by losing the first syllable. It did mean "tidy," but was extremely rare, and has long vanished from common use.

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If ageless means that something does not age, does agefull mean that something is enriched with history and experience?

No! Agefull does not exist. While it would seem like a logical word formation, agefull has never been a standard English word. We might describe something rich with history as timeworn or venerable, but agefull never made the cut.

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If exasperate means "to annoy or frustrate", what would the opposite word mean? To calm down? To smooth things over?

Asperate does exist, but it doesn’t mean what you think. It’s an archaic word meaning "to make rough or uneven." Quite the opposite! It comes from the Latin asper, meaning "rough."

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To improvise means "to come up with something unpreparedly," on the spot. Nowadays, you can simply say improv and everyone will understand exactly what you mean. So, does provise mean "to plan ahead," then?

Yes! Provise is a real but rare word. It means "to foresee or provide beforehand." It comes from Latin providere, meaning "to provide."

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Nonchalant means "unconcerned, calm, and casual." As you may have guessed, it derives from Old French, precisely from the verb nonchaloir, which means "to disregard" or "to not be concerned." So, can you be chalant?

No, the term chalant does not exist. The adaptation of chaloir never entered English. We don’t have a perfect antonym for nonchalant; perhaps concerned, caring, or attentive come closest.

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The logical assumption would be that when you are neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed, you are whelmed. Don’t you think?

But that’s not how it works. Yes, whelmed does exist, but not as a midpoint between the other two. Whelm, from Old English hwielfan, meant "to cover over" or "submerge." Eventually, we added the prefix "over" to it, intensifying the action, but the meaning remained the same.

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If nonplussed means "unruffled," or "unbothered," is plussed another word for "baffled"? Nonplussed comes from Latin nonplus ("no more, nothing further"). Originally, it meant "at a loss," or "bewildered," but its modern usage shifted to a synonym of "untroubled."

Plussed has been jokingly used as an opposite, a backformation of the original, but was never a real word. Some people understand it to mean "shocked" or "ruffled." But we don’t think anyone would make plussed their go-to synonym for "surprised."