The Land Of Many Words.

by Ravi Prakash Sah|Published June 2, 2021

If we look at our ancient history, we will find that a lot of our wars were in pursuit of one resource -alone: Land. Maybe because it was the gateway to all other resources. The power and prosperity of an empire was measured by the area it had under its control. Thus, kings with armies of thousands of people fought for centuries to exert influence over a miniscule fraction of the earth, who eventually turned to dust themselves much like their kingdoms after them. Yet the land we lived upon shaped the human civilization in ways uncountable – from our way of living to the language we speak, it left its imprint everywhere, be it in the form of small ridges or vast open fields.

Field, for instance, lends itself to a variety of different words but in the form of its Latin counterpart, ager (field or territory). Perhaps the most common word in this respect is agriculture (ager: field + cultura: cultivation) which refers to the science of cultivating and tilling the fields. An agrarian society thus came to mean a society that is primarily dependent on agriculture. Most of the ancient civilizations, be it the Chinese, Mayans, Egyptians or even us, the Indians were all agrarian. India, to a certain extent is still an agrarian society especially when we look at our rural areas. Another derivation is agronomy which is the science of soil management and crop production.

Farm — Image Credit: FelixMittermeier/ Pixabay

A unit of measurement of land area, acre also owes its existence to the root ager. It further led to the birth of the term acreage which means a large piece of land.

Now if the word peregrine is bought into our discussion, it might seem like a foreign entity. But this requires some context for which we will have to time travel to ancient Rome where the society was divided into two legal classes: Cives Romani and Peregrini.

The Cives Romani were full Roman citizens who held most legal rights such as right to property and marriage. The Perigrini, on the other hand were foreigners who did not possess as many legal rights. They could, for instance, hold land but were prohibited from marrying Roman citizens. To acquire full citizenship, they had to fulfill certain conditions, one of them being to serve in the Roman army for 25 years.

The singular form, Perigrinus was derived when the root agerwas prefixed with per- (away), thus referring to someone from a foreign land. Thus the English word peregrine carries the sense of being foreign or strange. For example, a team of scientists recently discovered a peregrine rock that is older than the earth itself.

Peregrine Falcon.
Image Credit: 70154/ Pixabay

Peregrine can also refer to something that is travelling or migratory. This led to the term peregrination which means travelling from place to place. The Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird on the planet, is called so because they migrate to Alaska from the American mainland during the spring season.

Peregrination also served as the inspiration for the term pilgrim (a person who travels to a holy place) and by extension of it, pilgrimage which is the name given to the journey to a holy site.

Pilgrims at The Golden Temple — Pilgrims at the Harmandir Sahib.
Image Credit: travelphotographer/Pixabay

A quick glance at the summary of the above words should help with the quiz ahead.

Table Summary:

Prefix	Word	Suffix	Meaning
	Agriculture		The science of tilling fields and cultivating crops
	Agronomy		The science of soil management and crop production.
	Agrarian		A society largely based upon agriculture to meet its basic needs.
	Acre		A unit of land.
	Acre	-age	A large piece of land.
	Peregrine		Something that is strange or foreign.
	Peregrine	-ation	Travelling from one place to another.
	Pilgrim		Someone who travels to a holy place.
	Pilgrimage		The journey of a pilgrim to a holy place.