Words

[bluenose]

I have just posted on a different thread the word incomprehensible.
Someone tell me the root of that word and I cannot give you a prize but you will have my admiration.
It is also, as far as I know the English language word with the most prefixes and suffixes.

[helenwyler]

Bluenose, the word 'comprehend' derives from Latin 'prehendere', meaning to catch hold of (hence prehensile toe). The prefix 'com' means completely, so 'comprehendere' means to grasp/ seize mentally (comprehend), and extends to mean include/encompass.

Hope that helps! :)

[bluenose]

Sorry you have to go back farther/or deeper than that.
And I will have to look this up but I do not think the root is greek or roman although the suffixes and prefixes are.

[_Ju_]

Portuguese is a latin based language. We also use the word "compreende". "Prende" is to catch ( we loose one e and the h from the latin). The comp part would be derived from completely ...... at least I believe so.

[Fran]

Incomprehensible.....meaning difficult to uderstand, unclear, unintelligible. In spannish comprende means understand?

[Colin Manson]

In spannish comprende means understand?

Yes it is.

Comprensible is Understandable.

Incomprensible is Incomprehensible

[northener]

....I don't understand......

[bluenose]

With apologies to Helen the word should have been incomprehensibility. That may look insubstantial but it does make a difference.
I quote from Bill Bryson, (who I met once in Hay-on-Wye), from Mother Tongue, "the word incomprehensibility, which consists of the root, -hen- and eight affixies and infixes: in, -com-,-pre-, -s-, -ib-, -il-, -it-, and y.
Read the book it is both enlightening and funny, as are all his books.

[rfr10]

With apologies to Helen the word should have been incomprehensibility. That may look insubstantial but it does make a difference.
I quote from Bill Bryson, (who I met once in Hay-on-Wye), from Mother Tongue, "the word incomprehensibility, which consists of the root, -hen- and eight affixies and infixes: in, -com-,-pre-, -s-, -ib-, -il-, -it-, and y.
Read the book it is both enlightening and funny, as are all his books.

Incomprehensibility means to be incomprehensible which is from the latin word- incomprehensibilis which means impossible to catch or understand and now I'm going round in circles so am going to stop :). That was a waste of time.

[joxville]

Finally it's explained. I knew the question, had read it before but couldn't remember where so thanks for that bluenose. The only Bill Bryson book I still have is The Thunderbolt Kid, gave the others away.

[percy toboggan]

I like Bill Bryson too...in fact two of his books are amongst the best I've ever read.
Notes from a Small Island, and the other one's title eludes me....he was in Europe, in fact he was all over it.

As for the thread itself, I'm afraid I can't understand it.

[Torvaig]

Bluenose was not wanting the meaning of the word incomprehensibility but rather its components similar to analysing a sentence and breaking it down into nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives etc., just as we used to do at school when the teacher gave us a sentence to "parse".

Thanks for that Bluenose; very interesting! Time I read Bill Bryson methinks....