Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of fascini
Coloured illustration of fascini
#1862 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to fascinate, to captivate

Word origin

From Latin fascinare, to bewitch or put under a spell, from fascinum, a charm worn against the evil eye. The Roman word was about magic done to you; the modern one keeps the helplessness and drops the witchcraft.

Origin
Latin
Root
fascinare
English cognates
fascinate, fascination

Examples

.

The old castle fascinated the children.

.

The music fascinated everyone in the room.

.

The languages of the north fascinate me.

The root is fascin-, one piece, and that needs saying because the letters -in- sitting in the middle of it look exactly like the feminine suffix. They are not. has nothing to do with -in-, there is no masculine *fasco for it to be derived from, and the word divides only into fascin- plus the verb ending. The same trap catches and , where the -in- is also just part of the borrowed spelling, and it is worth learning to check whether removing the suffix leaves a real word behind. Here it does not.

Meaning-wise, is the strong end of the interest scale. Something merely interesting is interesa; something that holds you against your will is fascina. Ravi is close but warmer, more delighted than transfixed, and sorĉi is the literal bewitching that used to mean and no longer does.

Note the case pattern in the third example. puts the thing doing the fascinating in the subject slot and the person in the accusative, which is the natural Esperanto order for this verb and the reverse of the English one. would mean you are casting the spell on the languages.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

fascini: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is part of lesson 38.