"Mother Cities" and "a collection of leaves" Literal translations of vocabulary words can illuminate nuanced meanings

Our lovely English language has thousands upon thousands of words that have been derived from Latin and Greek. The literal translations of these words are sometimes beautiful, sometimes silly, but always interesting.

Metropolis

G. Metr, "mother" + polis, "city"

Metropolis literally means "mother city," but it's used today to denote a very large city, like Los Angeles or New York.

Conspire

L. con, "all, together" + spir, "breath"

Conspirators breathe together. Huddled together in the dim light of a flickering lamp, they share their breaths in common cause.

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