海角大神

Late last month, British newspapers were full of a word unfamiliar to Americans. Britain鈥檚 new prime minister prorogued Parliament and set off a constitutional crisis. Some members of Parliament tried to prevent the prorogation by holding the speaker down in his chair, since only when he rose would it take effect. On Sept. 24, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom declared the prime minister鈥檚 move illegal.听

Prorogation might appear to be some divisive, dangerous thing, but on its own it is only a temporary suspension of Parliament. The controversy here arose from its timing, as it stopped members from debating before another Brexit deadline.

Technically, the prime minister cannot himself prorogue Parliament. He must ask the queen to do it, as it is her prerogative. And here we get to the subject of this week鈥檚 column. Prorogation and prerogative share the same root, the Latin rogare, which means 鈥渢o ask鈥� or 鈥渢o request.鈥� It turns out that rogare can be paired with a number of prefixes to make common, and not so common, English words.

Pro- can mean several things, but in our case it signifies 鈥渋n front of, publicly.鈥� This is the least helpful of the prefixes, since pro- + rogare gives us something like 鈥減ublic requesting,鈥� which has little connection to prorogation鈥檚 definition today. But pre- means 鈥渂efore,鈥� and it is much easier to see how 鈥渢o ask before鈥� (pre- + rogare) became prerogative, a special right or privilege.听 聽

Adding the prefix ad- (鈥渢o oneself鈥�) to rogare creates something like 鈥渢o ask for oneself.鈥� The 鈥渄鈥� here eventually became an 鈥渞鈥� and produced the verb arrogate (鈥渢o claim or seize without justification鈥�) and the adjective arrogant. I love that, etymologically speaking, arrogant people, who believe themselves to be superior, are just greedy, 鈥渁sking for themselves.鈥澛� 聽

De- indicates 鈥渁way from,鈥� so a derogatory term 鈥渢akes away from鈥� the reputation of someone or something. The adjective means 鈥渆xpressive of a low opinion, disparaging,鈥� as Merriam-Webster puts it. Inter- signifies 鈥渂etween,鈥� and 鈥渢o ask between鈥� is not a bad description of the systematic interviews known as interrogations.听

Surrogate started off as subrogate, with sub- indicating 鈥渋n place of another.鈥� The word鈥檚 roots literally mean 鈥渁sk in place of another,鈥� which is the definition in Merriam-Webster: 鈥渙ne appointed to act in place of another ... a substitute.鈥� 聽

These are the more common words derived from rogare. I鈥檇 like to end, appropriately, with a suffix. Rogare + -itate (鈥渋mplying intense or repetitive activity鈥�) gives us rogitate, 鈥渢o make persistent entreaties.鈥� I think rogitation deserves wider currency, since it captures an experience familiar to parents: 鈥淎re we there yet?鈥� and 鈥淐an I have a cookie?鈥�