Increase Vocabulary
with the Latin Root MANUS
Need a great way to increase vocabulary for your students? Try grouping English vocabulary words around the Latin root word MANUS, meaning hand.
Teach a few new words, then watch your students discover dozens more on their own. Their excitement will amaze you, and their natural curiosity will help burn new words into long-term memory.
Our Latin Word of the Week is the perfect way to begin.
Latin Word of the Week (4/23/2008):
Increase vocabulary: Create your next lesson plan with the Latin root manus, manus. Give your students a hand internalizing new vocabulary words.
Derivatives of Manus, Manus:
manufacture (v): to make by hand (manus + facere). China manufactures nearly everything these days.
manumission (n): the act of freeing from bondage, setting free (manus + mittere).
manumit (v): to free from slavery, to release from the hand of control.
manuscript (n): a document written by hand (manus + scribere).
-Samuel Johnson
manuduction (n): the act of leading by the hand (manus + ducere). When my son turned 9, he refused motherly manuduction to school.
emancipate (v): to free from the hand of power or control; to set free.
manage (v): to oversee, to handle, to control. He managed to learn five new words per day.
manual (adj, n): of the hand, such as manual labor; a little book, held in hand.
manciple (n): one who acquires or purchases provisions for an institution, such as a college or monastery.
mandate (v, n): to order, authorize, decree; a command, an order; (manus + dare). The king had the mandate of heaven, but not so much of the people.
mandatory (adj): ordered, commanded; obligatory, necessary.
maneuver (v): to steer, drive, handle skillfully (manus + operare). As with many words, this one comes from Latin through French. Manu operare means in Latin to work by hand.
manicure (n): a caring for the hands (manus + curare).
manifer (n): a gauntlet for protecting the left hand while holding the reigns of a horse.
manifest (adj, v): evident, plain, clear, obvious; to make clear or evident; (manus + infestus).
maniple (n): a handful. In the ancient Roman military, a subdivision of troops, about 60 to 100 soldiers.
manipulation (n): the act of influencing or managing. The manipulation of Latin roots helped him increase vocabulary.
manumotive (adj): movable by hand.
manure (n, v): a substance spread by manual labor to fertilize soil.
Latin Words & Phrases in English:
manus (n): legal power, as of Roman husband and father over his household.
marriage with manus: For Romans, marriage with manus meant a marriage in which the father of the bride gave full control to her new husband.
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