Post Eagle Newspaper

Monday

Nov 4, 2024

67°F, clear sky
New Jersey

Time Now

12:00:00

Mob – Populate, Population, Depopulate

Today’s word is MOB from the Latin – MOBILE VULGUMwhich means the MOVING LOWER CLASS OF PEOPLE. Over a hundred years or so an English reporter shortened the term to MOB when writing about an influx of lower class people who moved from place to place frequently to avoid paying rent. POPULATE, POPULATION, DEPOPULATE come from the Latin – POPULUSwhich means a general class of people. The prefix – DE – means DOWN, DOWN FROM. Therefore the term – DEPOPULATE – means TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE. PLEBE, PLEBES, PLEBESCITE, PLEBIAN come from the Latin word – PLEBS – which means THE COMMON PEOPLE. VULGAR, VULGUS, VULGATE, DIVULGE come from the Latin word – VULGUS – which means THE LOWEST CLASS OF PEOPLE. If a book is written in the VULGATE, it is written in a language that even the common person can understand. DIVULGE means to spread around so that everyone hears it. If a law is presented to the people, it is put before them. The prefix – PRO – means IN FRONT OF, and the word VULGUS means PEOPLE, and that gives us the English word PROMULGATE.