2. Curiously, articulate comes from the Latin word articulatus which means distinct or jointed. Current usage implies that the speaker can JOIN all the words together in the right way.

3. Vex means to bother, irritate or baffle. It is the root of words like vexing, vexation and vexatious. It comes from the Latin vexare meaning to shake, jolt or annoy.

4. Our English word prostrate comes from the Latin word prostrenere, which means to throw prone. Sometimes prostrate is a verb- he prostrated himself on the ground. Sometimes it is a noun- he lay prostrate in front of the bear.

5. The word does come from the Latin abyssus, but the Latin got it from the Greek abyssos, which means bottomless. So for us, abyss is used to mean a bottomless depth.

6. Martyr traces back to the Latin martyr and the Greek martys, which means a witness. In modern usage it has come to mean someone who dies for a principle.