Roots of English - 53 (Ous- Possessing , Full of)

Today we are sharing the next,53rd Part of our series, 'Root of English'. With the help of this, you can improve your vocabulary in a very easy way. Also, the images attached helps to memorize a word for a longer time, so let's go through it now!

English language is made up of four parts. These are -

• GREEK ROOTS
• GERMAN ROOTS
• FRENCH ROOTS
• LATIN ROOTS

Now if you learn these roots, you can figure out the meaning of hundreds of English language words without even knowing their exact meaning. Before we go further, let us answer some basic questions for you first.

What is a root?
A root is the part of the word which gives instructions to a word.

How many parts is a word made of?
A word is made up of three parts.

For example - Transferable

Here 'Trans' is a prefix, 'Fer' is the root and 'able' is the suffix.

Note: PREFIX is a word, letter or number placed before another. SUFFIX is a letter or a group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning.

Root Word for Today: OUS

Today we have taken 'OUS ' as a ROOT which has various meanings:  Possessing, full of something, full of given quality

Now with the help of this one root, you can come out with the conclusion of several other English words. Such as,

1) Opprobrious - ( o-pro-bree-us r) - Language full of  criticism , disgrace and abuse

Usage - The athlete's admittance of using steroids lead to very Opprobrious remarks on him by his fans.

2) Luscious -  (lush-us) - Full of pleasingly rich and sweet taste.

Usage - Some food products appear such luscious in their advertisement that we start feeling hungry just by looking at them.

3) Oblivious - (obliv-ee-us) -  Full of unawareness , not aware of or concerned about what is happening around one.

Usage - Being very busy in her work, she was totally oblivious of her surroundings.

4) Pugnacious - (pug-ney-shus) - Full of quarrelsome nature, very eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight.

Usage - Today's youth is becoming very pugnacious who constantly talks back to their parents.

5) Obsequious - ( ub-see-kwee-us) - Full of obedience. very obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree.

Usage - The princess had obsequious servants who showered her with attention.

6) Rapacious - (ru-pey-shus) - Full of greed for something,  aggressively greedy or grasping , having or showing a strong wish to take things for yourself, usually using unfair methods

Usage - The rapacious developer kept trying to procure all the property he could, and he was using fraudulent means to get people to sell their land to him for ridiculously low prices.

7) Vivacious - (vi-va-cious) -  Full of liveliness ,  (especially of a woman) attractively lively and animated , full of life an spirit

Usage - The young woman drew attention as she entered the party due to her vivacious personality while cheered up everyone present there.

8) Voracious - (  vo-ra-cious) - Full of appetite for something , to want a lot of something especially food, Full of craving for a great quantities of food.

Usage - The shark is such a rapacious appetite that it is often considered to be more of an eating machine than a living creature.

9) Covetous - ( cuv-i-tus) -  Full of desire to possess something belonging to someone else , having or showing a strong desire for especially material possessions especially something that belongs to someone else

Usage - As soon as I got the new iPhone, my covetous friends wanted one too.

10) Gracious - ( grey-shus) -  Full of politeness and kindness. Very courteous, kind, and pleasant, especially towards someone of lower social status.

Usage - While the manager did not hire Riya , he was gracious enough to tell her about open positions at other stores.

11) Tremendous - (Tre-men-dus) -   Full/great in amout , size , beauty , intensity

Usage - A Blue Whale is a tremendous creature, larger than any other animal on Earth that we know of and easily dwarfing several school busses.

We hope this session will help you in Vocabulary Preparation. We will come back soon with our next session. Also, you can go through our previous articles from the list given below: 

Roots of English