Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms

by Donald J. Borror

One of the outstanding problems of the biologist, whether he be beginning student or specialists, is that of understanding technical terms. The best way to understand and remember technical terms is to understand first their component parts, or roots. This dictionary has been designed primarily to meet the needs of the beginning student, the medical student, and the taxonomist, but it should be of value to all biologists.

Genres: Reference, Science, Language, Nonfiction, Writing, Dictionaries, Biology

134 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1960

About the author

Donald Joyce Borror was a professor of entomology and zoology at Ohio State University. He founded the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics at the university, which houses one of the largest collections of recorded animal sounds in the world - it has more than 30,000 recordings of over 1400 species of animals.

As an entomologist and naturalist, he is known best as an expert on the order Odonata (dragonflies & damselflies), and for his book An Introduction to the Study of Insects.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book- it makes me nearly impossible to talk with.

[Simon Håkansson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Went through the whole thing. Great resource for onomastic work.

[Charles C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here it is, folks—a book on etymology, written by a professor of entomology.

This is a useful book for anyone interested in the sciences, especially life sciences. Those unusual Latin names have meaning buried within, and with this book you can decode them for yourself.

[Travis]

I saw this come through the library as a hold about the time I was reading The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island, which features invented scientific names for the creatures, so I first thought of this book as a tool for developing those names. But then I wondered why it was only organized alphabetically by word root, and not by English meaning. But now that I have looked at it more, it is obvious that it is for people studying medicine, biology, or such like, an aid to comprehending the dizzying array of terms used in those fields. I don't have enough need for that, and plenty of other books clamoring for attention, but it might be interesting to revisit this sometime.

[Charlz · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my god. I love this book.
I love it so much it may or may not have teeth marks in it.
I have every intention of carrying it in my purse for the rest of my life.

[Valerie]

This is the most all-round useful dictionary I've found. It's small, easily used, and helpful when technical people throw words like 'idiopathic' or 'hyporheic' at you.

[Sarai · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word...LOVE!

[Aubrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I've used this reference book for biology classes, for English classes, for creative writing projects and to satisfy a curiosity for etymology.

[Juli Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necessary part of any educated person's library.

[Quantum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful for creating new names from Latin and Greek, mainly.