Whither Tango?

["Jérôme M. Berger"]

Justin Johansson wrote:
> I don't give an iota about iota.  In my dictionary retro is a
> Latin prefix.  However in post-classical Latin it is not uncommon
> to come across words that have a Greek origin.  Me thinks we are
> both right on this occasion; retro is a Latin prefix; it's in a
> Latin dictionary and its etymology appears to have a Greek connection.
> 
> retro- pref. repr. L. retrō- adv. (‘behind’) used in combination as in
> retrospicere (cf. RETROSPECT), retrogradus (see next), f. RE- + compar.
> suffix as in intrō- INTRO-; in anat. and path. denoting ‘situated
> behind’ the part of the body indicated by the second el., as
> retro-ocular, -uterine.
> 
> T. F. HOAD. "retro-." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English
> Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 20, 2010).
> http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-retro.html
> 
	Well my source for "retro" was this (in French):
http://www.le-dictionnaire.com/definition.php?mot=retro which
definitely states it has a Greek origin. However, you are right that
Latin did borrow a lot of Greek words so it could have come to us
through Latin.

	For "iota" my source was the 1980 edition of the "petit Larousse en
couleurs" dictionary. I don't think that one went through Latin
though...

		Jerome
-- 
mailto:jeberger at free.fr
http://jeberger.free.fr
Jabber: jeberger at jabber.fr

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