This may sound strange to you, but I feel lucky in my life to
have studied both Latin and Ancient Greek. Not only for the
cultural and literary aspects, but especially now, as the parent
of two curious boys. Latin and Greek has helped me more than
just about any other subject I studied -- possibly even
including science, which is saying something, since I have two
young scientists in the house. Since I think a big part of any
education is demystifying the parts that seem hardest, I have
made it a habit to explain etymology to Beckett as a way to
understand the scientific process and method. It started, of
course, with dinosaurs. Dinosaur nomenclature sounds esoteric
and exotic, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Dinosaur (terrible lizard) names are so literally descriptive
that after learning a few etymologies you want to beg the
paleontologist (students of early origins) to be more creative.
Pachycephalosaurus, for example, sounds daunting, but is
composed of three root words: pachy, thick; cephalo