Word origins

• actioThe use of voice and gestures in oratory; the style of delivery of a speech.
• velarArticulated at the velum or soft palate.
• BarabbasIn the accounts of the Passion of Christ, an insurrectionary whom Pontius Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem, instead of Jesus.
• militateTo give force or effect toward; to influence.
• CommodusA male given name.
• princepsThe title of the Roman emperor during the principate.
• venerateTo treat with great respect and deference.
• apsisA recess or projection, with a dome or vault, at the east end of a church.
• telamonA figure of a man (often Atlas) used as a pillar for support.
• cathedraThe chair or throne of a bishop.
• inundateTo cover with large amounts of water; to flood.
• syrinxA set of panpipes.
• CaiaphasA Jewish high priest in the first century CE who is said to have organized the plot to kill Jesus.
• putamenThe shell of a nut; the stone of a drupe fruit; endocarp.
• introspectTo engage in introspection.
• stelaAn obelisk or upright stone pillar, usually as a primitive commemoration or gravestone.
• octogenarianSynonym of eightysomething: a person between 80 and 89 years old.
• follisA large bronze coin minted during the Roman Empire.
• fascicleA bundle or cluster.
• satiateTo fill to satisfaction; to satisfy.
• letheForgetfulness of the past; oblivion.
• embolusAn obstruction causing an embolism: a blood clot, air bubble or other matter carried by the bloodstream and causing a blockage or occlusion of a blood vessel.
• IlluminatusA member of the early church who had received baptism and been given a lighted taper as a symbol of the spiritual illumination they had received.
• elephantineOf, relating to, resembling, or characteristic of elephants.
• glomusA fold of the mesothelium arising near the base of the mesentery in the pronephron, and containing a ball of blood vessels.
• aconitumThe poisonous herb aconite; also, an extract from it.
• PharsaliaAn epic poem by the Roman poet Lucan describing Caesar's Civil War.
• fibrilA fine fibre or filament.
• acuminateTapering to a point; pointed.
• ibidemIn the same place; indicates a reference to the same source as the previous one.
• ActiumA promontory in Acarnania in Ancient Greece where Mark Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by Octavian in a naval battle in 31 B.C.
• NeapolisFormer name of Naples: a port city in southwestern Italy.
• effeteexhausted, spent, worn-out.
• miserereAn expression of lamentation or complaint.
• LyciaA historical region in southwestern Asia Minor, in modern-day Turkey.
• blennyBlenniidae (combtooth blennies)
• corneumThe outermost layer of the skin.
• PlautusA Roman comic playwright (c. 254 – 184 BC) of the Old Latin period.
• adductionThe act of adducing or bringing forward.
• urbsA walled city in Ancient Rome.
• peplumA peplos, an Ancient Greek garment formed of a tubular piece of cloth folded back upon itself halfway down so that the top of the tube is worn around the waist, and the bottom covers the legs down to the ankles; the open top is then worn over the shoulders, and draped, in folds, down to the waist. Compare the Roman palla.
• soriCopper sulphate, especially combined with other impurities, particularly in the context of the Roman Empire.
• sycophantOne who uses obsequious compliments to gain self-serving favour or advantage from another; a servile flatterer.
• beatificBlessed, blissful, heavenly.
• caesarianOf or relating to or in the manner of Julius Caesar.
• integumentA shell or other outer protective layer.
• MetoA male given name.
• antrumA bodily cavity, especially one having bony walls, especially one in the sinuses.
• homonymA word that both sounds and is spelled the same as another word.
• phantasiaA phantasm (an impression received through the senses) or the faculty of receiving or representing these impressions.
• conflateTo combine or mix together.
• SemeleThe mother of Dionysus.
• conciliateTo acquire, to procure.
• PetroniusA male given name from Latin, of historical usage, notably borne by a Roman courtier during the reign of Nero and the patron saint of Bologna.
• EdessaA city in Greece, capital in Pella Prefecture, in periphery of Central Macedonia.
• RomanicOf or relating to Rome or its people, especially Ancient Rome.
• puerperiumThe period of time lasting around a month immediately following childbirth, when the mother’s uterus shrinks back to its prepartum state.
• renegeTo break a promise or commitment; to go back on one's word.
• sellarRelating to the sella turcica.
• sororA sorority sister; a fellow member of one's sorority.
• ApenninesA mountain range in Italy, stretching 1,200 km from the north to the south of the country, along its east coast, traversing the entire Apennine Peninsula, and often called the "spine of Italy".
• natationThe act or process of swimming
• umbilicusA navel.
• EratosthenesAn Ancient Greek polymath at Alexandria, best known for his studies of geography.
• electrumAmber.
• latusSynonym of flank.
• cloacaA sewer.
• sutorshoemaker; cobbler.
• CincinnatusA male given name from Latin.
• loricaA cuirass, originally of leather, afterward of plates of metal or horn sewed on linen or the like.
• irreligiousHaving no relation to religion.
• obscurationThe state of being obscured.
• palliumA large cloak worn by Greek philosophers and teachers.
• numerateTo count.
• quinquennialOf or related to a five-year period.
• PhaedoAn ancient Greek philosopher.
• frustumA cone or pyramid whose tip has been truncated by a plane parallel to its base.
• factitiousCreated by humans; artificial.
• trienniumA period of three years.
• TheodosiaA female given name from Ancient Greek.
• cornuA horn, or anything shaped like or resembling a horn.
• ingloriousIgnominious; disgraceful.
• HephaestusThe god of fire, smithwork, metallurgy, volcanoes, and artisans, who served as blacksmith of the gods. His Roman counterpart is Vulcan.
• serrateHaving tooth-like projections on one side, as in a saw.
• caprineOf or relating to Caprinae (goats, sheep, and certain wild relatives).
• fabulaA series of events forming the basis of a story or narrative.
• LatonaThe Roman counterpart of the Greek goddess Leto and the mother of Apollo.
• ligulaA strap or strap-shaped object, especially such a development in plants or insects.
• malleusThe small hammer-shaped bone of the middle ear.
• vinalpolyvinyl alcohol fibers
• icterusAn excess of bile pigments in the blood; jaundice.
• paschPassover.
• cohereTo stick together physically, by adhesion.
• aridityA long-term lack of rainfall or moisture.
• miniumCinnabar, especially when used as a pigment; vermilion.
• laudatoryOf or pertaining to praise, or the expression of praise.
• pyxisA small box.
• venireA writ of venire facias.
• fructusIn Ancient Roman law, any product originating either from a natural source (such as fruits grown or animals bred) or from legal transactions (e.g. interest on a loan).
• circumscriptionThe act of circumscribing or the quality of being circumscribed.