Not Sweating the Small Stuff

Latin Roots

Now, you are about to be sadly (though only momentarily) disappointed – the first roots in this post are linguistic rather than … well, you know.

Yesterday, I had the feeling I had tapped into the meaning of the universe – and was understanding all things directly. I was listening to a group of Philippino gay guys chatting in Tagalog … and I was effortlessly comprehending everything said! This epiphany only lasted till I realized the Spanish base of the language - about a third of the vocabulary is Spanish or Spanish derived. And this linked to my years of learning Latin at school. So ‘mensa’ (Latin) is ‘mesa’ (Tagalog) and ‘table’ (English); ‘stella’ ‘estrella’ ‘star’; ‘manus’ ‘mano’ ‘hand’; and so on.

Enough?

Ok, Victorio is another kind of Latin root, but one not yet encountered in Manila:

But I'm working on it.

PS Did you know foreskin pulling is about to become an Olympic event? Victorio's pull would get a gold medal from me - it's got good stretch, great body placement supporting the pull, and fabulous participant visual focus on the pull so the spectator's attention doesn't wander from the event (as though it would!).