Expertlatin
- Are most words derived from Latin?
- Why are some English words derived from Latin?
- How many known Latin words are there?
Are most words derived from Latin?
About 80 percent of the entries in any English dictionary are borrowed, mainly from Latin. Over 60 percent of all English words have Greek or Latin roots. In the vocabulary of the sciences and technology, the figure rises to over 90 percent.
Why are some English words derived from Latin?
English (and most other Western-European languages) adopted many words from Latin and Greek throughout history, because especially Latin was the Lingua Franca all through Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and later.
How many known Latin words are there?
The Oxford Latin Dictionary has about 40,000 entries, according to its Wikipedia page, so that's probably a good estimate for classical Latin. Du Cange's Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis has about 90,000 entries, according to this website.
