Songs without Words

Part 1.

As my first post in a long while, I want to highlight a couple words from the family derived from the root “leuk-” meaning “light” or “white”

Luna/lunar: goddess of the moon, and pertaining to the moon.  An obvious object which is both white and bright

> Lunatic: a crazy person, originally blamed on the full moon.

> Lundi: the French word for the first weekday, the English counterpart of which (Monday) also refers to the moon.

Luster/lustrous: a sparkle or sheen to a surface or object

> Illustrate: originally meaning “to bring light to” or “to illuminate,” I find it interesting how it is still relevant for modern “illustrators,” who by depicting concepts in visual form, are seeking to clarify and illuminate a subject for the audience.

Lumen: a unit of light, but also the inner surface of a biological vessel or duct, referring maybe to the light coming in from the aperture of a tunnel-like object?

Lucid: clear, transparent; and lucent: shining

> Pellucid: similar, as in the zona pellucida around an egg (oocyte)

Lucifer: the bringer of light/morning star, and another name for Satan

> Luciferase, any enzyme including that found in fireflies, which cleaves a substrate to release light

Leukocyte: a white blood cell, part of the immune system.

> Leukemia: a cancer of the white blood cells in the bloodstream (lymphoma is the solid tumor equivalent)

To my knowledge, the word “luxury” does not actually derive from the same root, nor do “lust” or “luster” in the sexual sense.

Part 2.

Splitting roots.  Just a short note about how two-consonant combinations in roots can end up split in both pronunciation and eventually the conception of a word.

Helicopter = “helico” (spiral, like in “helix” or “Helicobacter,” a bacterial genus including a common species causing stomach ulcers) + “pter” (winged), but we split this has “heli” and “copter,” the latter of which is the accepted short form for the word.

Diagnostic = “dia” (through, by) + “gnostic” (pertaining to knowledge), but the pronunciation splits this as “diag” and “nostic,” which is reflected then in neologisms such as “theranostic,” a therapy which is also useful as a diagnostic; this term is rarely spelled more properly as “theragnostic.”