Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of brakhorloĝo
Coloured illustration of brakhorloĝo
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Translation

wristwatch

Word origin

A compound of brako, arm, and horloĝo, clock. Brako is Latin bracchium; horloĝo comes through French horloge from Latin horologium and Greek horologion, an hour-teller. So the whole word unpacks as arm-hour-teller.

Origin
Esperanto compound on Latin and Greek roots
Root
brako + horloĝo
English cognates
brace, bracelet, horoscope

Examples

.

He looked at his wristwatch and said nothing.

.

My wristwatch shows the right time.

.

She received a beautiful wristwatch from her father.

Two roots, no glue. Esperanto compounds by writing the modifier first and the head second, and joining them directly: brako arm plus horloĝo clock gives , a clock for the arm. The head noun is the one on the right, which is why this is a kind of clock and not a kind of arm.

Notice what got dropped. loses its -o at the join, because the ending belongs to the finished word, not to each piece. Sometimes the vowel stays for the sake of the ear - vaporŝipo keeps its o where vaprŝipo would be unsayable - and the rule is nothing more principled than that: keep it if the cluster is hard, drop it if it is not. Brakh- is fine to say, so the o goes.

The pattern is worth practising because it is how Esperanto names most modern objects. Poŝhorloĝo is a pocket watch, sonorilhorloĝo an alarm clock, sunhorloĝo a sundial. In each case the second root tells you what the thing is and the first tells you which sort. And if the compound ever feels heavy, the prepositional escape route is always open: says the same thing, at more length.

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Esperanto · Free printables

brakhorloĝo: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "brakhorloĝo" (wristwatch): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 39.