Flashcards: Latin Derivatives

ponderous

 

1) of great weight, very heavy; 2) heavy and awkward; 3) dull

 

Novels like James Joyce’s Ulysses and Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus can be read with profit by well-educated readers, but not by most high-school students, who peremptorily pronounce them ponderous.

 

Related English words: ponder (to consider carefully and thoroughly, to weigh in the mind), ponderousness

 

Latin root words: pondero, ponderare, ponderavi, ponderatus - to weigh; to consider; ponderosus, ponderosa, ponderosum - weighty meaningful; pondus, ponderis, n. - (a) weight

 

Next Word

Return to Flashcard Lists