The scholar's companion

the long version

This is a book about the etymology (history) of words. It contains Latin bases, Greek combining forms, and frequently used affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Unlike most current books on the subject, this books gives the entire Latin or Greek word (the Greek words being spelled in the Greek alphabet in addition to being transliterated into English). It contains a list of synonyms. The book is well indexed. It has a long list of words derived from proper names. The book doesn't really explain much about how a word developed, when it began to be used, or any particularly interesting or entertaining "tidbits," but it is a thoroughly informative and comprehensive book about how words are "made" by using Latin bases and Greek combining forms. It would make an outstanding textbook for use in studying for our current-day Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), American College Test (ACT), or Graduate Record Examination (GRE).