television - hippopotamus

[JoF]

Hello,

I have been asked the following question and the answer has me stumped, can anyone help?

What connects the words "television" and "hippopotamus" making them unique in the English language

Please end my misery of not knowing the answer.

Thanks

Jo

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by JoF

Hello,

I have been asked the following question and the answer has me stumped, can anyone help?

What connects the words "television" and "hippopotamus" making them unique in the English language

Please end my misery of not knowing the answer.

Thanks

Jo

My guess is that someone thinks that both words are derived from a combination of Greek and Latin. Even if that were true, which I don't believe, I doubt it is unique (if two anythings can be unique).

Television comes from a Greek prefix (tele) and a Latin root (vision). However, hippopotamus comes from two Greek words, hippos (horse) and potamos (river). If Latin did anything to the word, it changed the penultimate letter to a u to be more consistent with Latin spelling. For me, that hardly qualifies potamus as a word of Latin origin.

[JoF]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the response. I looked up the origins of both words, but there are so many words in the English language that are Greek/Latin in origin.

So I'm still stumped. I've tried to find vowel patterns and everything :)

It puzzels me!!

Thanks again.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by JoF

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the response. I looked up the origins of both words, but there are so many words in the English language that are Greek/Latin in origin.

So I'm still stumped. I've tried to find vowel patterns and everything :)

It puzzels me!!

Thanks again.

You're welcome. I agree with you. Many Greek words were imported into Latin and then they were exported to England through Norman French. Let us know if you get an answer.

[rewboss]

We may have to wait until the end of the month to find out.

Here's where the question is posed (scroll down to bottom of page).

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by rewboss

We may have to wait until the end of the month to find out.

Here's where the question is posed (scroll down to bottom of page).

Good detective work.