The Latin root word dict and its variant dic both mean ‘say.’ Let me ‘say’ a few words about this useful English word root.
Have you ever considered what the origin of the word dictionary actually is? Dictionaries help with the pronunciation, or correct ‘saying’ of words, besides giving other word information such as definitions and word origins. Are you addicted to reading the dictionary? If so, you have ‘said’ or declared your love for it.
Some people try to predict events before they happen, thereby ‘saying’ what will occur before they actually do. The prediction is often wrong, thus is contradicted or ‘spoken’ against by what actually happens.
Did your school have a valedictorian who ‘said’ the farewell address at your high school graduation? If so, she may have dictated or ‘said’ her speech to a friend, who wrote it out for her. The speech itself was probably dedicated or ‘said’ for the members of her graduating class.
A verdict is the truth ‘said’ by a jury who determines whether a defendant put on trial in a court of law is innocent or guilty. If the defendant is vindicated, he is ‘said’ to be free of all charges that had been placed against him. The jury may just as well, however, indicate or ‘say’ that he is guilty!
Only the unwise would question what a dictator ‘says,’ for he gets the final ‘say’ in everything. In fact, speaking up in such a way might put you in quite the predicament or dangerous situation, for you would have ‘said’ something before you thought about what its consequences might entail!
I have now dedicated quite enough time to ‘saying’ things about the root words dict and dic. But go ahead and thumb through your dictionary and see how many more words it indicates have this useful root!
- dictionary: tells how to ‘say’ words
- addict: ‘speaks’ heavily towards something
- predict: ‘say’ beforehand
- contradict: ‘say’ against
- valedictorian: one who ‘says’ farewell
- dictate: ‘say’ words to another
- dedicate: to ‘say’ for another
- verdict: ‘speaking’ of the truth
- vindicate: ‘say’ to be free from something
- indicate: ‘say’ to make known
- dictator: ‘sayer’ of rules
- predicament: result when one ‘speaks’ too quickly, or before she should