amara

The false seam of the whole chapter. Amara looks as if it should be am- plus -ar- plus -a: the root for love, the suffix for a collection, so a collection of love. It is nothing of the sort. Amar- is a single Latin root meaning bitter, and neither ami nor the -ar- suffix is anywhere in it. The resemblance is pure accident, and it is the reason this word is worth a page rather than a line in a list: the machinery of Esperanto word-building is so reliable that when a word only pretends to be built, it can mislead a confident learner more thoroughly than a beginner.

The test that catches it is the meaning, not the letters. Amaro in Esperanto is bitterness, not a heap of affection; the derivations amareco (bitterness as a quality) and amarigi (to embitter) all pull the same way, and none of them has anything to do with love. If a supposed build gives you a meaning nobody could have intended, the build is not real.

On usage: amara is the taste on the back of the tongue, the opposite of dolĉa, and it carries the same figurative extension English does. Bitter words, a bitter defeat, a bitter old man - all amara. Akra is sharp rather than bitter, and acida is sour, which is a different taste and a different complaint.