595: name, noun, and nominative Jul 25, 2016

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The Latin word for 'name' gave many English words the names that they have now. 'Name' itself has Germanic roots, but is connected by an Indo-European root with Latin's 'nomen', which can be seen letter-for letter in the word 'nomenclature', a word to describe the act of naming something (in scientific fields). More interesting perhaps is that 'noun' also comes from this Latin word, since nouns are words to identify things and people (and concepts etc.) by name. Finally, in grammar the word 'nominative' is used to describe the syntax of a word when it is the subject of a sentence, and it shares the same root.

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