Latin #3

Latin root #3: TANG, TACT, TIG

Meaning: touch 

Words: 

1. Tangible (adj) (-ible = able, having power): capable of being touched, touchable

The tangible effects of living at the beach include sand in your fingernails, your hair, your teeth (oh, yes), and just about everywhere. Of course, if you regularly do this for fun, what else would you expect?

As a side note, I think we could host a community game of Where’s Waldo? given my son’s hair color.

2. Tactile (adj) (-ile = relating to): relating to touch or sense of touch

My son is definitely a tactile learner, which makes for some interesting stories that I’m sure will come up on this blog from time to time. “Mom, what’s wrong with poking a hole in the meat packaging? I need to see how strong it is.” It also means that, when something like this washes up on shore, we’re instantly on parental high alert.

3. Contiguous (adj) (con- = with, together): touching together, sharing an edge

Thus far, our children still hope to buy properties contiguous to ours when they grow up. I wonder how many more years it will be before that desire will change, and, as another side note, is there a point where that becomes creepy if it doesn’t change?

2 Replies to “Latin #3”

  1. Holy huge jellyfish! If I were there, you wouldn’t have to worry about your son touching a washed up jellyfish because I would invariably step on it while gazing at the water.

    As a side note, my older two boys liked reading your Latin tutorials over my shoulder. Just proves to them that their mom isn’t trying to torture them with the exposure to Greek/Latin roots. Most of the time, anyway.

    1. Island Mom says: Reply

      Ha! Truthfully, on Tuesday, I was out for a run (I say that like it’s a regular thing – so, so not true) and almost picked one up myself. It was really small and blue, and for a second I thought I was about to score a big win for my sea glass collection.

      For years, I got paid to torture large classrooms of high schoolers during the summer so that they could improve their vocabulary and future test scores. They were all, of course, eternally grateful for my sagacious teachings and never once wanted to be anywhere else but in our sauna-like classroom doing endless etymology drills.

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