At work the other day we were discussing the probably chaotic home life of one of our students. Immediately upon writing “disfunctional” in my notes, I realized that it didn’t look right and peeked on a co-worker’s paper to verify that the spelling I’d been looking for was “dysfunctional.”

“Of course. I knew that,” I thought, exasperated with myself. “What a maroon,” as Bugs Bunny would say. And with that, I realized it was time to get back to my roots — my Greek roots, that is — which also happens to be what we’ll be looking at today (what a coincidence!).

In the description of their book “Roots of English,” the folks at Memoriapress.com explain that, “Words with Latin and Greek roots are longer and more difficult than the short words for ordinary objects that form the first layer of an English-speaking child’s vocabulary. Their meanings are more nuanced, more specialized.”

The “dys” that came to us by way of the Greeks means “bad; hard; unlucky,” as in “dyslexic” and “dysfunctional.” While everyone (except me for a while) knows that the prefix “dis” can mean “deprive, exclude or do the opposite of.”

Since the Greek root “chron” means “time,” it makes sense that a chronograph is a watch or clock that’s designed to keep accurate time in spite of motion or variations in temperature, humidity, and air pressure. It’s also why illnesses that persist over a lengthy period of time are called chronic conditions. (The opposite of “chronic” is “acute,” which happens to come from the Latin root “acutus” and means “sharp” or “pointed,” like an acute angle.)

While at the doctor’s office you certainly wouldn’t want to be told that you’re suffering from hypertension, which got its prefix from the Greek “hyper,” meaning “over; above.”

A doctor who studied psychology, which comes from the root words “psycho” (soul; spirit) and “logy” (study of), might diagnose you with a “phobia” (fear), which is an irrational anxiety or dread of something.

Another excellent example of a word generous enough to give us a double dose of its Greek roots is “autobiography,” which comes to us by way of the root words “auto” (self) and “bio” (life). (When the publisher said she wasn’t interested in my autobiography, I said, “Oh well, that’s the story of my life.”)

Greek also has provided us with words that are antonyms of one another. For instance, “phil” gives us a word that means “love” (a Francophile is a lover of all things French, for example), while “mis” and “miso” supply the roots for hateful words such as “misanthrope” and misogyny.” (And it just so happens that ”anti” and “nym” are also Greek and mean “against” and “name” respectively.)

As a word guy, I’m always on the lookout for words that have to do with writing, and the Greek root words “homo” (same), “graph” (writing), and “phon” (sound) fill the bill nicely. Homographs are two or more words that are spelled the same but have different meanings (and sometimes pronunciations). On the other hand, homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings. The Greek antonym of “homo” is, of course, “hetero” (different).

A few other Greek root words that pervade our everyday lives are: morph (form; shape), photo (light), pseudo (false), scope (viewing instrument), techno (art; science; skill) and tele (far off). How many more can you think of?

If some of this has been Greek to you, don’t worry – next time I’ll change things up by taking a look at the Latin roots of some of our common English words.

Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at jlwitherell19@gmail.com.