Dec 16, 2025  
2025-2026 Binghamton University Academic Guide 
    
2025-2026 Binghamton University Academic Guide

AMS 111 - Word Origins


Credits: 4

The English language has become the world’s lingua franca: it is used by native speakers (using their own distinctive and extremely diverse dialects) or by individuals who use it as a second language. Because of this, English is employed as an agreed-upon common language in fields such as business, pharmacology, psychology, geography, medicine, law, biology, and philosophy. English can accommodate such wide-ranging uses because it comprises many words that come from Greek and Latin. The purpose of this course is to provide students with tools to analyze and understand these words in English through the recognition of Latin and Greek elements (prefixes, bases, suffixes). The course will not confine itself to technical-professional vocabulary, but will also explore words that come from Greek and Latin in everyday English. Offered regularly.